A homeless man was in front of my building.
He showed up during that freezing cold snap. I noticed him on the sidewalk, as I was leaving for work, a tattered pile of dirty brown and gray. There was something Christ-like about the long hair, beard and sad eyes. He watched me silently as I stepped briskly around him.
It left me a little shaken up. I told my friend Bob at work. "Oh, there are all kinds of programs for them," Bob said.
But, programs or not, the man was still there when I got home. It was a cold night, and the man was shivering. I averted my gaze. In the elevator, I mentioned it to my neighbor Phil. "Crazy guy, it's annoying" Phil said, "We should call the cops."
Next morning, the man was still on the pavement. He looked worse; the freezing weather was rough.