Dreams of an Unhoused Man

He has shown up in several dreams, stretching back a couple of years. He is usually middle aged and white with unkempt brown hair and facial hair, although there is occasional variation. He is always unhoused, and always wearing the torn mustard colored shirt and pants. In one dream, he was in the kitchen of a new house I was moving into. In another, he was walking towards me on the left side of Bryant Park, which was in shadow - everyone else was on the sunny side, sitting or wandering around. Most recently, he seemed like he was following me (or was I following him?) on a street that turned into an underground car tunnel. I needed to cross the street to the side he was on, and as I did, he threw a pack of cigarettes at me.

When I woke up from that most recent one, I did some active imagination with him, and asked him what the most difficult part of being unhoused was for him. He said he had nowhere secure to keep his stuff and people kept stealing it. I asked him if he’d like a box with a lock to keep his stuff in. He said he would like that, so I included it, even though it wasn’t in any of those dreams.