Colleen: Is your current situation your fault? Is it societies fault? Someone else?
Al: I believe my situation stems from the disease of addiction for which there is no known cure except for abstinence and meetings and stuff like that. It is a mental disorder type thing. Thinking that you can use and not want it again. It is insanity. I think it has stemmed from that but the reality of it is, by my choice. It was by my choice. Nobody forced me to do what I did. Mom lives nearby. She lets me bathe there. She lets me eat there sometimes I cannot live there because my stepdad, we had issues years ago and he was stealing drugs and fighting with him and stuff like that. I cannot stay. You know, I am trying to stay out of jail. I do not tolerate a whole lot. My mom never used. He(the step-dad) used to drink but he dont drink. he is a very unforgiving person. He is a person who holds a grudge until the day he dies.
Colleen: Do you see any mental issues in yourself?
Al: Yeah I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. I have been on medication. I am not at present on medication. I got a psychiatric in prison the whole time and I was on medication and I seen a psychiatrist every month and counselors all the time, this and that, and I got out. Before I got out of prison they put me on disability. They did my application for me for the social security administration and all that and then when I got out I missed my appointment for the doctor and they denied me. So I’ve got to reapply. I’m supposed to be on medication. Department of corrections is full of men and women that are drug addicts and alcoholics that suffer from the disease of additiction, you know what I am saying, and they supply their addiction by stealing, prostitution, laundering, I mean whatever. Whatever you got to do to supply your addition and they do not have the funding anymore to help with counseling and drug rehab and all that now. I mean you know, the state is going broke and they just do not have money. They do not have the money for any programs so when you do go to prison or jail you just sit there and you sit there and amongst other felons that try to help you plot on how you are going to do it better the next time to get out of it. You know what I mean? Instead of working on the issues that are involved, the thinking issues with addiction.
Colleen: What kind of work do you do?
Al: I'm a certified welder. I got that in prison but I have not been able to find a job here because I do not have an ID. That’s why I am here. They are supposed to help me get that. And then I’ve never been on these buses. I have to learn to read the bus schedules and I do not have any money for bus passes. I just feel like I’m stuck you know what I mean? I’m stuck. Every day I get up I do not have the proper ID to get a job. But I still try to get side jobs and odd jobs and whatever I can do.
*** I noticed a lot of the people I spoke to felt 'stuck'. They messed up, or lost a job, or however they came to be homeless and now they don't have any idea what to do. How do you get an ID if you have no means? How do you travel? If your house burned down how do you get the necessary documents to get a job? I mean, if I lost my job and my husband lost his job, we'd be homeless in what, 2-3 months? How many of us have enough savings to pay the bills until we find a job?
Close family ties or lack thereof was another big common factor as Al mentioned. More on that next time.
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