On a cold, wet morning in the winter of 2019, I was talking with another parishioner in a Catholic church following daily mass. A man came in, shaking and crying, pleading for help. He had been in the hospital nearby for hernia surgery, and was discharged shortly after the operation. He had nowhere to go, and when he returned to where he had left his belongings before going into the hospital, they were gone. He had no coat, no shelter of any kind, no survival supplies, no belongings, and he was shivering.
We spoke with him for a while, and learned that he had been a roofer who had developed epilepsy. He’d had seizures while roofing, and survived the dangerous situation, but subsequently lost his job. Because of the seizures, he also couldn’t find other work and so, shortly after, he lost his housing. We took him to the rectory, where he was connected with a parish charity, who paid for two nights in a hotel. After that, he was on his own again. I asked on a few occasions, but didn’t find anyone who knew what became of him.