NOT AT THIS ADDRESS is an illustrated journal stitched together with misdirected mail. The pages in this book, replicas of letters meant to assist people living on the street, tell a story of undeliverable resources and missed connections. Please pick it up. Read it. Dirt is not going to hurt it.

If you don’t have an address it’s hard for a provider of health care, food assistance, human services, Social Security to reach you. Much less deliver the punitive mail that comes looking for the destitute—riding the bus without a pass, crossing a bridge without paying the toll, the bill for an ambulance that picked you up off the street.

To fill the gap, a soup kitchen where I volunteer allows guests to use their address to receive mail. Many homeless sign up but few return to claim their letters. It’s more common that they would be swept out of the area, sickened by the harsh elements, mentally broken, or near death. The staff and volunteers remain hopeful that some will return and connect with the services they’re due. 

This book is not a precious artifact. Please pick it up and page through it. Read it and consider what we take for granted when we have an address. Without a street name, city, and zip code how do you function? Without that basic information how do you apply for social security, a bank account, drivers’ license, medical care? If your family wanted to find you, where could they write?

This book illustrates the gap between resource and need. 

To close the gap you need a home.