A couple of city council members met at a coffee shop and sat in a back booth, taking care that the booths close to them were not occupied, so as to be able to speak freely. James said, “I have found some interesting statistics that may affect the transition of the homeless to the ships.”
Malcolm asked, “This is kind of a late date to change our plans. Do you really think the information is that important?”
James took a big sip of his mocha and said, “I’ll tell you the info and we can discuss it and decide together. The three fastest growing demographic of homeless people here in Portland are African-American adults, women and people over fifty-five years of age”
“Let me interject something here,” Malcolm said, whispering, “As controversial as it would be to suggest doing something about the homeless African-Americans, and assuming you don’t want us to be attacked for being racist, I’m guessing you are highlighting one of the other two groups. Also, I’m sure you have thought about how we are, for now, trying to sweep the issue under the rug that women in our city are generally paid less than men in the workforce, since we have more pressing issues to deal with and that would mean women are not your main focus.”
“Yes, you are right and I have some more statistics to convince you. Twenty per cent of our homeless are seniors and fifty- seven per cent of the homeless are disabled. The number of homeless seniors increased in the last ten years by 84%. They have been priced out of the system by the rising cost of housing. Most of them became homeless after 50 years of age and after working hard all of their lives. In addition, they deal with issues such as mobility, anxiety, depression, cancer, alzheimers and other cognitive and physical ailments,” James said.
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Malcolm said, “I see your point. Good job on the research. However, I am inclined to wait on that solution and use the capable ones for teaching the children, minding the shIpboard shops and library, etc. The first order of business is to take care of the druggies and the severely mentally ill while everyone’s attention is focused on settling the others on board the ships. We can’t have too many people disappearing all at once. It is to be expected that the drug addicts will need to go to a clinic.”
James said, “Point well taken and I tend to agree with you. Should we wait till shortly before Thanksgiving to make the decisions concerning the elderly?”
Malcolm asked, “Why would you think Thanksgiving is a good time to relocate the elderly?”
James said, “It is a time when many people get together with families to celebrate and it would not seem odd for many of them to leave the ship to go visit their relatives. If you feel it is too soon after getting this project started, we could always wait for Christmastime.”
“I think we are going to have to put it off for a little longer because we are going to have our hands full locating all of the drug addicts and dealers and mentally ill. Some will be easy to find and take to the clinic, but others, with their paranoia and intuition will be able to hide from us for a time. I would think that all of them would be taken care of by early 2025 and then we can implement taking care of the elderly, too,” Malcolm said.
The men finished their coffee and their meeting and James said good-bye as Malcolm went through the line again to get some banana bread to take home to his wife.