by Lydia Bailey, Coordinator of Volunteers at 2100 Lakeside Men’s Shelter 
 

Ralph Pack Williams seems to view life through the habitual eyes of a would-be sociologist.  A friend of Ralph’s terms it differently; “Ralph is the Rush Limbaugh of the homeless.”  Having been basically homeless for the last 28 years, Ralph Pack has had no shortage of social life to analyze and comment upon!  I’ve spoken with him often here at Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry’s Men’s Shelter of 2100 Lakeside, and at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral’s Sunday Lunch.  Here is some of Ralph’s ongoing life and perspective:

There has been a strong upswing of people sliding through the cracks, becoming homeless in the past 10 years.  The reason for this is twofold: loss of unskilled jobs, loss of affordable housing.  As Ralph says, “The manufacturing age was primarily one of manual labor.  In industrial cities like Cleveland, the unskilled, uneducated, even those who didn’t speak English could get a job.  Those same people are homeless today, and lucky if they can find 2 days of work a week.  The old style manufacturing jobs are gone.”  Ralph moves on, “We all have to admit how horrifying it is-how almost impossible it is-to afford not even decent housing on minimum wage.  In Cleveland when I began picking up jobs around age 16, there were tons of cheap hotels, cheap apartments, flop houses.  These were the good days for the homeless.”