It's difficult enough to witness the masses of homeless scattered throughout our Duke City streets,…read morevirtually everywhere. Unlike so many major metropolitan areas, ABQ has very few neighborhoods delineated by income; simply put, in much of the city, doctors live next to artists who live next to drug addicts who live next to hedge fund managers. It's a weird town, just ask a taxi driver. It's also a relatively temperate place to huddle down if you don't have a home. Well, until November, that is. As a father, this time of year is exceptionally difficult to imagine from the point of view (and starved belly) of a homeless kid. Freezing, cursed to suffer life's ravages through no fault of their own, there are many, many more of them than you'll see standing near a freeway entrance. I heard the official number on the radio this morning: 1 in 30 U.S. children will experience homelessness this year. I'm betting that ratio is inordinately higher in this city. Joy Junction is New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter. I've visited a few times, only to pick up my daughter, who has donated a fair amount of time feeding the residents. A drive along the property spells out the culture within: underfunded, overwhelmed, people barely survive beyond serious struggle, here. There's plenty of sadness, dispute and tough stuff happening here everyday. All of it tucked deep into the South Valley far away from Tanoan and Ridgecrest. My impression is that the organization does the very best it can with limited resources. This holiday season, consider donating your time, money or material possessions (they have a terrific thrift store and donation center). They can use every last bit of you.

Female staff are mean as snakes except the one nice black lady, who actily speaks to the clients…read morewith respect... Food is usually undercooked chicken or nasty vegan breads that didn't sell at Trader Joe's. They have 20 kinds of spices in the kitchen but staff doesn't bother to use them. Joy Junction in one word: Crap in the name of Christ. They post online photos of the meals on Facebook for their DONORS (it's all about the money, they don't respect the homeless AT ALL....) every day, but don't show the bruised apples, etc. that they commonly serve almost every day... Freezers full of delicious food they don't bother to cook.... They have salad dressing but usually don't bother to use any. Try having salad every day for three weeks with no dressing, yuck. Seniors can't eat any of the salads cuz they're full of hard-to-eat vegetables that you can't eat with teeth or gum issues. They make residents 'volunteer' 20 hours a week even if they have chronic pain. They make people take the gravel outside even when it's 20 degrees outside and they have no gloves.... They staff at the gatehouse work 'security' but have not even a knife to defend themselves. Once there was an armed person on the premises and they did nothing to protect the 'volunteers' at the guard shack. ('Volunteering' is required or they kick you out... it's dishonest to call it 'volunteering' since that's a lie and Christians should not lie....' But staff lies in word and deed to protect their precious reputation... Six of the paid staff have narcissistic disorder (I've written two books on psych and I know my stuff....) Any questions?