The first three months I was homeless, it was very hard for me. I wasn’t able to shower the whole time. I cared that I wasn’t clean, but I didn’t know where to go. Now, me and the shower, we’re best friends.
The first three months I was homeless, I didn’t eat very well. I would take what I could find in the trash, and I lost a lot of weight.
The first three months I was homeless, I didn’t speak a word. I had no friends, no one to talk to. One time, when I read something funny in the newspaper and laughed out loud, I looked around to see who was laughing, because I had forgotten the sound of my own voice.
On Friday, August 28, Michael Haney came home to a beautiful house on Western Ave. It was his first night living at Zeke’s House, our group home for men, after seven years of homelessness.
Andrew is quick with a smile and laugh. He's a grandfather to eighteen and is now reconnecting with his family after getting an apartment through our Neighbors First program.
"I moved into my apartment on the 16th of September!"
David Harris hasn’t forgotten what it was like to sleep among the falling leaves during his three years of homelessness. And now he shares his memories with bright-eyed and curious teenagers who come to Washington to learn about poverty and homelessness.
People are homeless because they lack housing, for any of a number of reasons. For example, they might lose a job – or have a mental illness or a substance abuse disorder and not be able to hold a job. If they can’t pay the rent, they will be evicted and may end up on the street. Or the disruption of a family may lead to serious depression, then homelessness.
On Friday, August 28, Michael Haney came home to a beautiful house on Western Ave. It was his first night living at Zeke’s House, our group home for men, after seven years of homelessness.
