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Mike, 31, had a job for 5 1/2 years at a nut and bolt factory in Jenkintown, just outside Philly, until this shut down three years ago. Started out at $13 an hour and was making fifty grand a year at the end. Had a house and a truck, but lost it all. Has been homeless for 1 1/2 year. Mike said the people most generous to him are blacks, and, as if to prove his point, a young black woman, maybe a teenager, brought him a bag of McDonald's food and a soda, then an older black lady gave him some money. These were the only people to give him anything during the 15 minutes I talked to Mike. The rudest are guys in suits, Mike said. Some even spat on the sidewalk near where he sat. One rich guy did give him a hundred dollar bill, though. This guy also gave four other homeless guys nearby a hundred dollars each. Last week, a drunk woman, with four or five friends, slashed his sign with a box cutter as he was walking. "I thought she just shoved me," Mike said. "When I realized what she had done, I almost crapped my pants." Had she lunged a little harder, she would have stabbed him. Every now and then, Mike is taken in by the cops and locked up for a night. If he's taken in on a Friday, then he won't get out until Monday. First day in jail, he gets served the usual cheese sandwiches, but if he's moved to a real prison, then it's soy burgers.

He makes about $20 a day, panhandling, and sleeps outside because the shelters are too dangerous. This, I've heard over and over again. "Too many mentally ill people in there," Mike said.




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