Denise I have heard about so many more people than normal have gone homeless lately so I decided to go and try to give back! I wanted food that would be easy to pass out, easy to make, high vegetable/fruit content, hydrating, stick with you type of food, and such as Zucchini Bread! This was a winner for so many reasons. SO I cooked and I cooked until I had almost one hundred loaves of bread that I cut it into chunks. I wanted to give them something bigger than one slice so I made it into about 3 slices equaled one of my slices.
NOW I was off after making so many loaves of bread! I went to the area that I had heard so many people on Facebook had gripped about the homeless people in this area. When I got there THERE WAS LITERALLY NO ONE AROUND!!! To make a long story short… I spoke to several people in the area that told me that it was NOT homelessness issue, but in fact a drug issue. I was shocked. Everyone that I spoke with had a home or a place to stay; BUT some of them were clearly hooked on drugs and could not even sit still.
I wish people were a lot more honest, because if I had known that this was a drug issue and not a homelessness issue then I would have NEVER brought my daughter with me. I thought this was a good learning opportunity for her to see how rough life can really be. One gentleman even told me that there were three men that just got arrested for making a 14 year old girl prostitute!!
I wish the city would have been totally honest about what had been going on in downtown Ypsilanti. I would have not baked bread for people that did not exist. So then I tried to contact a homeless shelter since I had so much bread, AND they told me that since it was not bought from a store that they could not accept it!!! I did not know that the homeless could afford to be that picky, but you learn something new everyday!
I did eventually find a homeless shelter to drop it off at. I did not call them and I just showed up so they could see that I was a “normal” person. I am going to try and let everyone know that downtown Ypsilanti is not a safe place to be. There are so many businesses that are also closing due to this homelessness issue and construction. The people on drugs were desperate for their next fix so they harassed the people leaving the different stores, begging for money, and when they did not get it, they got violent! This is not an easy article for me to write but this is something that needs to have a light shed on it!
