The Homeless Interviews #8

Think homelessness is something that happens to bad people? Abusers? Poor people? Could never happen to you because you have a steady income, an education, money in the bank? Stop and think for a minute. If you lost your income today, how long could you live on what you have in the bank? Where would you go? Who do you have for help? Could you simply get a job tomorrow and pick up where you left off? 

My next interview hit home hard.  "Carl" is a big man, over 6 feet tall with a deep voice and very sad eyes. I could tell he was hurting the first time we met just by looking at his face. He was dressed in clean jeans, work boots and a clean plaid shirt. He was unshaven, but not your "typical" homeless person.  His story knocked the reality square in my face. 

***Carl, tell me about your childhood.

I was born in XXX, Florida.  Grew up in XXX, Florida.  All my life.  My parents were chicken farmers. Not ordinary chicken farmers. I mean, we had like 150,000 at a time. And that’s were I grew up at.

***What were your parents like?

They were okay, strict but good. My dad was a good father, he was an education freak and but all in all it... I had a good childhood. I went to xxx Elementary, xxx Middle School, and xxx High School.  I graduated there.  I went to University of Florida.  I received a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering.  I am a licensed civil engineer now.  I am also a licensed contractor.  I probably won’t go any further than that.  I am 50.  I thought at one time, back you know, back when the living was good about maybe trying to do a PHD. I could teach with a Master’s but I this thing that happened to me, honestly, it really knocked the wind out of me. 

*** Tell me what happened?

I owned a company.  We did all commercial work.  Worked over the whole state of FL.  In 2008 when the economy headed down I had three major developers file bankruptcy on me.  It cost my company about 4.5 million dollars to get out of it.  Whenever I did that and it was that kind of a blow and we were in an economy that I could not gain work to recover because there was no work and we were also in a situation with the bank where they had closed the door to small business people. They did not want to talk about it.  It started a downward spiral there in 2008.  I tried to hang on.  I cut my crews back.  I was working 15-18 hours a day, 7 days a week. I did it until it liked to kill me.  I was working all those hours and worrying and trying to hold on to keep the door open.  In 2009 I was sitting in my office and I thought I had heartburn.  I went to the doctor.  The doctor rushed me to the ER, and when I was in the ER I had a massive heart attack.  I was in a coma for 36 days.  While I was in the coma they opened it up and did 6 bypasses.  When I woke up out of the coma, it was a Monday morning.  On Wednesday I had one of my employees pick me up in a truck and I went back to work and I tried to hold on.  I was doing everything I could to hold on and it was about to kill me.  It just kept going down and down and like I said before we were just in an economy where you just could not recovery.  And so I had 3 homes.  I lost them. I had a business.  I lost it.  Vehicles.  I had 26 trucks.  I lost them.  I lost EVERYTHING I had.  I lost everything I had.  It just cost me everything I could scrape to get out.  I had a 25k$ retainer attorney and the only thing they could tell me was these people are protected under federal law.  You cannot even ask for your money.  It is gone.  There is no getting it back.  Normally the bank will back you up.  Normally, you pick up jobs and you slowly recover.  From 2008 to now the banks do not want to hear from you if you are a small business and there is no work out there.  So, there is no recovery right now.  Or- there is recovery but not that kind.  So, I lost everything I had.  I lost it down to everything.  I lost everything.  When I got through, I was walking the street in Jacksonville. I had 40$ in my pocket.  I was by the bus station.  I got a ticket to Orlando.  Got off at the bus station (in Orlando).  Walked down the road at XXX( a really bad part of town) and I walked down the road and I was thinking oh my God if this is Orlando they need to shut Orlando down.  I was in a bad neighborhood.  I stayed on (that road) for 4 days underneath the overpass in the bushes with the crack heads.

I have a wife and a 4-year-old little boy.  Whenever the Lexus went and the unlimited credit cards went, she went with them.  So on top of everything else, now I’m heartbroken.    I never drank. I’ve never done drugs.  I’ve only been smoking for about 3 weeks.  I’m trying to get used to it.  You know, I stayed on (that road) for them days.  You kind of had to try to maybe sleep in a restaurant during the day because at night out there...  People do not realize it but when you lay down in the bushes at night you have to stay awake because the rats get on you.  So, I did that for 4 days and I finally got to the point where I said, well, what I am going to do is, I am going to go across here, I got about 5$ in my pocket.  I am going to go across to this auto parts store, and I am going to get me a gallon of antifreeze and I am going to sit out in the bushes tonight and I am going to drink it.   

*** more with Carl next post.


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The Homeless Interviews #7

Today we are back to Scott, the director.  Did you know that Jesus was homeless?  Luke 9:58 "Jesus replied, Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

*** What is the one thing a typical homeless person wants, and you said socks and underwear.

Socks and underwear.  You mean I tell you what, if that was all we did I think they would be happy, not now because of all the other stuff we do.

*** Do they want to know Jesus?

Many of them do.  Some of them are very angry at God.  Some of them were brought up in Christian homes that were over zealous and beat on them with the Bible.  Used it very improperly, misquoted it, manipulated them with it.  And so we are trying to build that trust. We’ve got people who get upset with us because they do not see us all carrying around Bibles, sitting down with scriptures all day,  trying to get them to understand that look, they do not want to know how much you know until they see how much you care.  Okay, so we have taken a very different approach to it. Believe me, hang around here enough you are going to hear God all the time in this place. We are starting a new program using the Recovery Bible.  We are setting up a recovery group right here that meets on Tuesdays for those people who will not go into a program but it is like AA except for the fact that instead of a ‘higher power’ we tell them about Jesus Christ.  We do not soften the edges of it.

*** Do you find that once they find Jesus they think their life will become normal?

No, becuase the first thing we tell them is, I cannot tell you if you are ever getting out of the woods and I will personally take someone to the woodshed who tells them otherwise.  It is real important to say to them, look, I do not know why God has allowed this. I am one who believes God has ordained or allowed everything.  So if he has allowed it all I can see is step back and ask what is he trying to get us to learn?  How is He using this.  This has been true throughout biblical times so why should that change now?  Why would God ask me to walk away from a 6-figure income after I had been homeless?  I have been at both ends and because he wanted me to know both.

*** So why do those volunteers come who want nothing to do with the homeless?

Guilt.  I think often, guilt.  The other is, most are people who do not have much themselves, on the verge of homelessness themselves.  They really get it.  They understand they are a couple of paychecks away. 

***They want to help but they do not want to have anything to do with the actual person?

Well, no they do.  I’m saying there are 2 different groups.  There are those that want nothing to do with homelessness but all of a sudden it is like ‘oh my gosh’ these are just real people with various strugges, but real people.  They are really just a reflection of society.  It drives me crazy when the news says a homeless guy killed somebody.  If he was stockbrocker would you say a stockbrocker killed somebody?  No.  No, he did not kill somebody because he is homeless.  He killed somebody because he is a murderer who happened to live in the woods.  that just makes me crazy.  So we’ve got the people who you know have a preconcieved idea, a lot of preconcieved ideas and then you have people who are just so close themselves.  They have had illness in their family, they have lost jobs, they have seen careers go down the toilet.  They have seen all of these things and so I think they are drawn to be a part of the change. If you came in here and see them you go, okay, alright, yeah, I know they are struggling.  Those are also the people that are our money people, too.  The people who give the most have the least.  It is crazy. It is absolutely crazy. I mean we have had some fairly substantial donations.  Our largest two donators, one owns 4 McDonalds and the other is homeless.  Is this a crazy world we live in?  They both gave us 5,000$. 

***Tell me the most encouraging story about a specific person.

Probably someone like Kevin C.  KC is a war veteran, decorated soldier who could not deal with the world when he came out of it.  He basically just became...he did drugs and alcohol, but alcohol became his thing.  He basically stayed pretty fickle for abut 40 years.  We just loved on him.  He was mean and nasty and gruff.  He was an SOB most of the time.  You know, you sit there and part of you just says, why am I even bothering. As we got to know him and he got to know us and we got to know his story the door opened and God just opened some really neat doors to minister to him and then Frank G. Frank is here every Tuesday now from about 1 to 4 and Frankie has a street ministry and Matthew’s Hope gave him a chance to touch these people at least twice a week every Tuesday and every Saturday night.  He is a former alcholic and drug addict and he is not afraid to go anywhere. He is a lot like I am. God placed Frankie here at a critical time because I could not stretch any further.  Frankie came to me and I kind of knew him. I had spoken at a men’s recovery group a couple of years earlier, he remembered me and he contacted me and he just wanted to come and I kind of pushed him off a little bit.  I said Frankie I want you see what we are doing first.  So he came out, he and his wife, Cindy, she is former marine, former alcoholic as well.  They are a mess. They are in the process of loosing their own home.  He has been very instrumental in helping getting a place with various programs and he kind of took Kevin under his wing, took it a step further and Kevin, he had veteran’s benefits.  We were able to help him to get those and get him into a veteran’s program and he is clean now and now he fell off this last week.  100 days and he fell off.  He was so ashamed, but you know what, that’s what happens.  He made it 100 days.  So you got to kind of look at it that way and if you meet him he looks nothing like he did when he started.  He could barely walk.  Even well after he quit drinking because his system was so screwed up his equilibrium was like all over the place and we had a hard time because of the weakness of his body to get him in various programs.  We finally got him into a VA program and now he is getting ready to go into his next step which I think will be another program, disability.  He is living in an RV and he’s got his retirement and he came by here the other day and helped build a desk.  In fact he stuck his number inside my desk and he said, you know, anytime you need me just call and so we have had some really neat success stories and there are more and but those are some of the coolest. Every week there is a different cool one and it is different levels and now I have even seen some children and women.

*Most discouraging?

One of the most discouraging stories is Diane.  Diane was a crack head when we got ahold of her and we got her clean and got her working at McD’s helped her to get a little RV she was renting.  Got her away from her homeless husband, not real husband.  Got all of her teeth pulled.  Her teeth were just rotten from the meth, got her medical and dental care.  Got her all cleaned up.  Got her a new set of dentures. She realized she really needed to get out of the area to take her life to the next level and so she had a way to go to I think N.C.  Got hold of a McD up there, she said I’m a current employee, they would hire her before she ever came up so at least had her job.  She gets up there and lasts a month and she shows up back here with the guy again. When she came back we did not fall all over her.  We did it on purpose.  We would do it again but they have to make that decision.  Much like any other alcholic, drug addict, whatever you are dealing with.  Homelessness is almost an addiction, it really is in a weird way. Some of this is real heartbreaking, and then when she was leaving she bit the hands off a lot of people that helped her and even the hands of people here. It was hurtful but it was one of those things that there were people who would say, you know, what the hell.  I understand why and what we need to do is say, okay God, this is... once again we need to trust in God’s timing and purpose.

The Homeless Interviews #6

I've read and re-read Bob's interview in order to sum up and give an overview, but I do not believe I can do him justice. Bob has problems, mental and physical. It sounded to me like he very much wants to get a job and get out of the woods, however, his problems are holding him back.  This is Bob, in his own words.  Mine are in ( ). 

(Do you know many of the people here? Is there a lot of abuse either within their own families or they come from...)  Yeah, well, I’m sure they probably did have a hard life growing up and that is why they do the things they do now because they come from alcoholic families and they already got it in the genes pretty much to drink alcohol.  Some has been around it all their life and they feel its okay to do it.  Just like me.  My brother is an alcoholic.  It took his life and it damaged my life mentally and it completely destroyed my childhood because I grow up and have fun.  I had to teach my little brother how to ride a bike and teach him how to read.  Teach him how to write.  (You were a parent as a child?) Pretty much yeah.  You know, someone to look up to.  I stopped spending time with my little brother after he started clinging to me and he wanted to commit suicide just because I would not let him hang out with me.  So I had to stop hanging out with my friends and focus on him again.  Until about 21 and then that is when he did his thing and went to jail.  To get to the point about me and another thing that got me into all this crazy drama is because I started smoking pot when I was 13.  I found a little smoke in my uncle’s truck and I thought, hmm, lets try this. And then I started drinking beer, stealing my mom’s beer on the weekends.  Then I started selling pot.  And I kept drinking.  And then I started selling cocaine, and then I started selling acid.  I got so big to where I had 15-20 cars pulling up in my driveway.  I would not wake up out of bed unless I got a phone call saying hey can you get me this can you get me that.  I was the only one who could get and I knew everybody in (his town). I was born and raised here.  And I was buying drugs cheap.  Once I had my daughter I stopped. I wouldn't touch acid no more. The coke I was done with that for over a year then and I quit selling and I was done.  After I left my ex I did not go back to smoking pot, I did not go back to selling drugs.  I started drinking to kill the pain because I did not have no medication.  I did not have no pain pills.  That is what I would do.  I would drink myself to sleep to kill the pain.  I would get up and go to work.  I would out-work anybody.  I was cool.  With all the people I worked with I was really nice and cool and then it got to the problem after 10 years of doing it there was really like this guy is not going to change.  He is running himself into the ground.  He smells like alcohol. (**he's talking about himself) I was only doing it for the pain, you know, and after I lost my job and everything that did not stop me from drinking.  Until I got here.  And then I realized I'm out in the woods and I need to change.  I got a feeling like I'm going to end up killing myself if I'm out here doing this.  So I went to the Hope team (medical) and I stopped drinking for 3 months.  If i pick up a beer I will wind up in jail over a simple battery charge.  I snapped and now I got a situation right now where I have this job willing to put a lot of trust in me and with a little bit of money if i can make the money that i need to make a week or a month to get up out of the woods and i got other people that know what kind of work i do and how good I am.  Easy money and hopefully the word will get out, all I want to do, I'm tired of stressing and mentally.  I went to talk to a psychiatrist in there (Hope med).  After I told them how I was doing she goes, you know what, i’ve only known you for 5 minutes and I can tell that you are )(*& -up in the head. Her exact words.  She says you have had major head trauma. You lost your hand.  You are not mentally in the right state of mind.  You are different.  I have tried to learn how to adapt to where I can still make a living but my body cannot handle after the accident.  I almost broke my neck.  I almost broke my back, my hip.  I'm in real bad shape.  My nerves are shot from here down.  I can barely hold my arms up.  I want up out of the woods.  I want out.   I do not need nothing big.  I’m not looking for a house.  I'm not looking for a trailer. I'm looking for something where if my wife gets on disability I got a little bit of money coming in to take care of her until then and then she can probably split the bill with me.  I'm not going to have to stress no more.

(you are clean now?) I'm clean. (what about mental problems) I just recently told the psychiatrist down here at O.B. Family Health Center.  I went in there and they are like oh, we have not seen you since August, that’s been what 5 -6 months. And they go well you could have come up here and seen someone else and she goes you went to jail, what was that for, drinking alcohol?  I was like yeah i was in a bar, had a couple of drinks. (**he got into a bar fight) ...I don’t want to fight no more.  I used to have that in me, that rage, you know, all of that hate that I had. ...the responsibilities I had to take on.  I was bad in a lot of places in life and a lot of things personally.  I talked to a psychiatrist when I was probably 18 and he started asking me questions, doing an evaluation on me.  He asked a couple of personal questions and I said look, I said you got me so mad right now I want to flip this desk over and come over the top of it and grab you by the throat. I said I am ready to mess you up and he says well what I think you need to do is leave right now. He got scared and he called in another evaluator that was bigger than he was and he tried to calm me down and I was like, this is uncool.  I have gotten more open and I have started reading the bible and I put a lot of things behind me and I know I did some things that were wrong and now I am in a situation where I wake up in the morning and I go alright, I am out in the woods, it aint my piece of property. Anybody can come out here today and throw me out of here. I've got to stay hidden, I've got to stay low.  If i need something I do not want to get caught coming out of here.  I am going to wait until the sun goes down and then go get it, you know, I’m just worried about it.  I keep the place clean, I have the trash picked, all the garbage,... and I know there is a cop riding by all the time and I figure if i keep it clean, you know, when they come my bike is hidden underneath the tree and all they see is maybe a piece of a tarp or something hanging out from underneath the tree then they wont run me out of there and then I would have to find another place to go.  Because that is how people get sucked into the evilness out here.  They will go to a place, go well these people are camping out here well lets hang out with these guys.  well by the time it gets dark they are already drunk wanting to kill one another, you know, or they are waiting for you to fall asleep so they can knock you out and rape your old lady, you know.  And then you do not want to go through that so you roll up your tent, you move somewhere else.  You know you find another spot somewhere else and then all it takes is one person to see you that knows you, where you are going and you are being followed, being tracked. If i can get up out of the woods where I have a place for my mentally challenged wife to sit all day and take her medicine and relax...she don’t have a care in the world...then I can not worry about that part of it.  But I can go out and make the money and do the work and work night, day, whatever it takes to do what i need to do for these people.

(you don’t want to go on disability?)

Right now I could but then I would be in the woods for another year or two years.  I don't know if I will get run out the next day.  

(so going on disability would prevent you from getting out of the woods?)

Yeah.  I will get a chunk of money whenever I first start getting on it and then I would have income but I do not want to be out there for the next two years.

(so you could not get a job once you got on disability)

No. I pretty much already qualify for it.  I brung in $$$ a month. Mentally I am not stable and my body is physically not able because I will get out there and start working real heard and by the 3rd or 4th day I’m like, look, this is too much work, you know.  My body is starting to hurt.  I can barely move, have problems tying my shoes.  I sit down for 15 mintues to take a break I cannot get, I’m going home. (eventually you will have to.  Do you think if you work long enough to get a place and then go on disability?)  I am not working for someone, a company, a full time job.  I am working for people that need a job done, a small job in a house. (handyman carpentry... subcontractor under the table type stuff?)  Pretty much that is what I am going for now and then I am taking up part of the lawn maintenance part too.  I am getting there. If I can make enough money by the end of this year to have my license back, start paying my child support again and have an RV paid for cash then all I have to do is find somewhere to put it. If i can have a piece of land that I can park it on.  If a church needs a maintenance man I will park the RV at the back of the property and nobody will know I'm there, I'm there full time.  I could be a handy man.  But I’ve gotten mad at the medical team at MH and I see what is going on, helping the homeless. I know they only do a few things for the homeless.  They will try to do a little bit more but once they leave at the end off the day and they go home... that’s it, it’s over.  They do not call you.  They do not say hey, you know, you need a ride or want to go fill out an application.  A ride would be so helpful.  Yeah they give you a bike but do I feel like peddling a bike 20 miles that way to fill out an application. ...When I leave here tonight, I’m not going to drink a beer.  I am going to go home and I’m going to relax, go to sleep, I am going to get up and go to work in the morning. When I get done working Thursday I’m going to kick back and drink a beer and take Friday off, I’m not working. I got nothing to do. Saturday, I won’t drink nothing Friday night.  Saturday I go to work, ready to go. Sunday I will probably try to go to church and try to meet a few people to try to get more work. One job a week.

(It sounds like you’ve got a plan, you just need everything to fall into place).

Yeah, its what I need. 




I'll let you make up your own mind about Bob. I left the interview feeling very sad and confused, mostly sad.

The Homeless Interviews #5

This next interview is with a man I will call Bob.  Bob is a small man, about 5'4", maybe 120 pounds.  He has red hair and freckles and bright blue eyes.  I thought at first he was going to be a difficult interview because he spoke very quietly.  However, Bob liked to talk, tell stories.  I'm going to 'sum up' a lot of his interview because he didn't keep a strict time line and I was so confused after the interview.  I had to listen to the tape and read the transcript several times to get it straight.  I finally figured out a small part of the problem.  Bob had a brain injury.  Here is his story:


Bob was born and raised in a small town in Florida.  He lived on 10 acres with his family and extended family.  At the age of 5 his father died in a car accident. He had been drunk.   "Mom comes up to me and my brother comes up to me and I seen my brother and I went like ‘where’s dad’ and they said sorry son he’s not coming home.  My brother he lost it after that.  The family kind of split apart.  My mom had to raise 4 kids on her own from there.  She never remarried.  She started drinking and went.. she went to work, come home.  She did not go nowhere.  Never went out.  Never tried to have any friends." Bob tells me he raised his younger sibling.  They moved into "town" when he was 16 and that is when he "started to get into trouble".  He says his extended family abandoned them.  "They never called.  They never come over.  We were poor and it just got worse."


Bob eventually got a job and started taking care of his family. He worked hard, made enough money to "pay the bills".  He says, " I had been very independent.  Always had a job. Always had a ride."  


At one point in his life Bob had an accident at work and he broke his hip, and apparently, he became started drinking to 'ease the pain', it was a little unclear.  Years later, he had a horrific car accident.  He and another guy had been drinking. He had an argument with his wife/girlfriend and had lost his job: 
" 2 miles from the house and I hit 3rd gear and there was a curve coming up.  He says watch out man you are going to hit that telephone pole.  I says no I'm not man I'm in the middle of the road.  I got this covered.  He pulled my wheel and when he pulled my wheel I pulled it back...  and I hit the pole.  The pole come down on top of my side of the truck.  Went through my truck to the headrest of my seat.  My head went into the windshield.  I was cut from here all the way to here, I was scalped (from the middle of his nose back).  It almost took my eye out.  It ripped my nose off my face and I lost 4 fingers.  My hand held onto the door.  It kept me in the truck when it rolled but the skin was so mangled they had to cut them off.  We stopped about (10 feet) from about a 1,000 gallon propane tank.  I could have blew up half of (his town).  I am left-handed and now I'm laid up damaged, hurt, mentally, physically, emotionally, and 3 months later my boss gives me my job back knowing I was incapable of doing what I used to do.  So I was trying to learn how to do everything with my right hand, you know just keep your head up and do what you can do and then 2 years later my hand got strong enough so I started depending on it again.  I started working harder and harder and harder because I wanted my own place again.


Bob doesn't like drugs but of course he does admit to drinking.  He is now with a woman who is mentally challenged.  "She is mentally challenged because she starting smoking crack and I do not deal with drugs.  Not like that.  When I met her I picked her up off the streets and I ain't never met someone who was crazy. never.  suicidal."


I couldn't help but think that Bob was an enabler.  He had been taking care of his family his whole life and now he cannot take care of himself.  He considers himself a victim. 


Bob: People that are victims, (Colleen: how do you see yourself as a victim?).  Abuse. child neglect because they would rather drink their beer on friday nights, lock the kids in a room while they are in the living room partying,  play some board games or something. 
 
  *** Was Bob's family the reason for his homelessness?  Did he take on too much and couldn't handle it?  Was the fact that both his parents were alcoholics, his surroundings full of drugs and abuse that caused his downward spiral? Why did his extended family not help out? Or, was Bob's homelessness simply a product of his wrong choices?  More from Bob next post. 

The Homeless Interviews #4

This is part 2 of Al.  As I talked to these people, I wanted to know more about their families. What were their parents like? What was the common thread in all of them? 


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.