Hurricane saga continues

Darrell and Matthew are back!

Matthew is looking a lot better. He got a job cleaning at Bank of America! He stopped by last week while I was out, and Patrick said it was actually nice to see him; I understood what he meant when the pair called on us this evening. Darrell is staying with a lady friend, I guess, but Matthew seems like he's made some real steps toward sustainability. He's got a hot plate, so he can do at least nominal cooking; he has a relatively dependable job (he showed me a copy of his job description and a map of the areas he has to clean, floors 32-35); and he has a place to stay.

That's not to say that this visit didn't involve some of the same things that the others have. It turns out that the landlord who was letting him stay at his vacant building in exchange for some work on the building upped and sold the whole thing and moved to Alabama. The new landlord is insisting that Matthew pay rent now; he can't wait until Nov 1, when Matthew gets paid. So Matthew wanted to know where he could get some help. He went to a couple of churches; he showed me their letters and their recommendations (they referred him to Cabrini Green legal assistance). I pulled a couple of other potential resources off the internet for him, including the U of C Law School clinic and another legal foundation that does pro-bono work, including landlord/tenant disputes.

And I gave him $40 toward his rent fund. He made vague references to paying it back, but I'm not really expecting him to. I would consider it a huge bonus, icing on the cake, extra credit if he did.

I don't know how much we've given to these guys, and I don't really want to know. There are so many places I don't even want to go as far as thinking about what's going on (e.g., the possibility that most of what I know about Matthew and Darrell isn't true, and whether it is appropriate to feel proud of the progress Matthew is making, and whether there isn't something totally blind or patronizing or both in my attitudes about the situation). I would like to just let it be what it seems to be, and be happy that people can and do go out of their way to do nice things to take care of each other.