Dear Berkeley Homeless Supporters,
Thank you very much for all your support while I was homeless in Berkeley. I flew back to Indiana yesterday to take care of my health and be with family. I’m living at my mom’s apartment now.
I will never forget how strangers, near-strangers, and acquaintances showed me compassion during my mental health crisis, how the community aided me when I got out of John George Concentration Camp (or “psychiatric pavilion”) with no money, clothes, food, ID, or plan. I also had no place to live because the slum lord changed the locks while I was in the hospital.
Without this support network, I would have been much sadder and in physical danger than I was with your aid. I appreciate it so much and will not forget it. You saved my life and I’m living to fight another day.
Thank you to First They Came For The Homeless especially. The rules gave me structure, safety, stability, and helped keep me clean from hard drugs due to camp expectations. I can be filed under “housed due to FTCFTH efforts.” Campers helped me get my head on straight in a community that oddly resembles 24-7 dialectical behavioral therapy (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_behavior_therapy), while giving me time to heal my relationship with my mom.
The Berkeley City Council sickens me and I hope you can get them to act right. Good luck.
I look forward to updates on the ongoing homeless litigation in Berkeley. Give them hell.
Again, thanks for treating me like a human being, cutting through the thorny hedgerows that oppressors use to attempt to keep us apart.
In struggle,
Lindsey Krantz
