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6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY People in the Neighborhood: Travis JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 Let’s meet our neighbor Travis. “Tell me about yourself, where are you from?” I began. Travis replied, “I came from the Commonwealth of Virginia. How y'all doing, Yankees?” “Doing very well, thank you!” I answered and then followed up with this question, “What was your childhood like?” Travis thought out loud. “Childhood. You know, looking back, I'm not sure what childhood I was supposed to have. I'm from Virginia where smoking tobacco, smoking cigarettes, is just a fact of life. I remember getting burnt by cigarettes in the kitchen of my parents' house. I grew up with parents who were cigarette-smoking alcoholics and stuck in a house which was loaded with nicotine. They were always addicted to something. I was raised to be sick without realizing it. But I'll admit, I was lucky. I wasn’t abused (except for the cigarette smoke) and I got to grow up with nice things. Unfortunately, only nothing lasts forever, even here in the land of the free.” “Why do you say that?” I asked. “Because in 1996 I got hit by a car and almost died,” Travis replied without hesitation. “Oh no! How did that turn out?” I asked. “Well, here's the thing,” he replied, “I don't know. I'm not sure because that was back in 1996 and traumatic brain injury*, head injuries and concussions weren't a thing. They could not give me anything [pain meds] as a kid. But for some reason, they started giving me psychiatric medication.” Travis continued, “People keep trying to slap me with that label because they want to tell me no human is illegal unless you are medically disabled or in some aspect invalid. Are you familiar with that word? In-vuhlid? As in medically invalid? The truth is, I'm sorry to say, that I am iatrogenesis incarnate, a victim of the medical error epidemic. That is why I'm here. Yes, medical errors were what brought me up here to Michigan. And that's why I ended up houseless in the city. Because I got hit by a car.” “But then you couldn't get it, the medical care?” I asked. “Well, here's the reason why. Because I was branded by the system, OK?” he challenged. “Branded in what way?” I asked. “If you are labeled with a mental illness for any reason, no matter how valid or sound it is, guess what? You are dead to rights in the same way a felon is. OK. In fact, even worse than a felon because at least a felon can get the conviction expunged. When it comes to mental illness, for some reason, that's a designation that always makes me a potential criminal,” he replied. Travis pivots slightly left. “Don't you mean thought criminal? Oh, where do I get this wacky idea? George Orwell, 1984. Welcome to the future.” “How did your experience with being unsheltered happen?” I asked. “Like a lot of millennials, I ended up a boomerang baby. It was tough living with my parents, it did break down; we couldn't get along and I ended up having to leave. When I got up here in Michigan, I was basically homeless. I stayed at the Victory Inn until it was shut down. It was a nasty tobacco den, just like Delonis, just like my childhood home,” he replied. “What happened after Victory Inn?” I asked. “After Victory Inn, I languished here in the county,” he answered, “and while I did have some outside help trying to get money and whatnot, it isn’t easy when you don't have private property, which makes it difficult to store food and other necessities for your benefit.” Travis continued, “So that's why I ended up homeless here. I stayed outside because the Delonis Center was not an option. Sleeping outside was cleaner. It was decent in 2022 and 2023. During those winters it was still tepid enough to sleep through, not like the following winters. I slept outside in a sleeping bag in Argo Park under some awnings and buildings. As long as there wasn't heavy precipitation, I was good. I was able to get motels when I needed them, like when there was heavy snow.” “Are you homeless now?” I asked. “Homeless? Okay, see, I'm not homeless, I never was because, well, George Carlin, home is an abstract idea. Home is what you make it, Joe Dirt, and that's why this house is not your home. Get it? Please, no, not homeless. I was indeed houseless and indigent and having a difficult time finding a place to stay. But I can't say 'homeless’ because it turns out that's a legal designation,” he replied. “That’s an interesting point of view. Do you know from night to night where you're going to sleep?” I asked. “Yes. I do have a residence. I'm only poor because my conditions have not improved, even though I got the housing I needed. It's deeply ironic that the place I'm living in was no better than the Delonis Center,” he replied. “So houselessness was in the past, not currently,” I clarified. “My houselessness status does not change in any real way for some reason. I've come to find that in Washtenaw County, I perpetually have the label of homeless under my name if I MAY 1, 2026 commit a crime, and that's the way it is,” Travis replied. Now he becomes more emphatic. “It’s almost like they're subjecting me to third-estate policing or broken-windows policing. Why am I a criminal? Just because I'm homeless and houseless? Oh, am I a landless peasant? Sure. Do you get the picture yet, Yankee?” Travis added, “I do have housing, yes. I had to go through Avalon Housing to get it, and they made it the worst nightmare ever. I'm at my second unit now. The last unit, let's just say that ended when a Karen called. Why would you send police SUVs to me? I'm on my front porch, hitting my vape, because someone said I was talking to a tree.” “What were you and the tree talking about?” I had to know. Travis fired back, “If you must know, this tree was just trying to warn me about all the Karens around here. If you would just talk to them [the trees], you would probably know that.” *Signed into law on July 29, 1996 by President Bill Clinton, the Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 1996, known as “the silent epidemic,” was specifically designed to address the under-recognized public health crisis of civilian brain injuries. Reflections on saying 'yes' to the warming center MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Another winter has come and gone. Thank you to Zion Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House, First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, Lord of Light Lutheran Church, St. Mary’s Parish, First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor, First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor, and the Freight House in Ypsilanti for successfully hosting the 2025-26 Daytime Warming Center. This is a reflection on the May 29 First Presbyterian Church discussion on hosting the Daytime Warming Center for the first time, and its impact on their congregation. On short notice, First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor committed to hosting the Daytime Warming Center for the unhoused for two weeks in December. According to their website, "First Presbyterian Church is an inclusive and diverse faith community, led by the Holy Spirit, who welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to explore, nurture and deepen their faith. Through worship, shared discussion, participation and service, we aim to make God's love felt throughout our congregation, and community, and echo throughout the world. Our challenge is to serve God with joy and to bear witness to God's transforming love made visible in Jesus Christ." The Warming Center started this season on November 10, 2025 and finished on March 27, 2026. On March 28, while hosting a Groundcover News stand at the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow, I ran into Resident Pastor Sarah Rutherford of First Presbyterian, and she informed me about the church having a discussion about having said "yes" to the Daytime Warming Center. I couldn’t make the discussion in person, so Pastor Rutherford sent me a YouTube video of it titled, “Exploring The Faith / Learning from our Experience of saying Yes to the Warming Center.” In this YouTube discussion Jane Dutton, a former professor for forty years who focuses on compassion in the workplace and a First Pres Church member, explored how this experience affected First Pres volunteers individually and the church community as a whole. Dutton shared see YES page 11 

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