KENNY

PHOTO BY RANDY BACON

KENNY’S STORY

I am 63 years old and I was born and raised in this area. I grew up in a really nice middle class family. So I have to admit that my homelessness does not have anything to do with my family  or the way I was raised. But being in the military, I am a veteran, I started doing some things I shouldn't. My homelessness has to do with me making bad choices in my life, you know. I made a lot of bad choices because of drugs and alcohol and I've been married and divorced like five times. And I had a bad motorcycle wreck, crushed my back, and my hand and my face, and basically been on morphine and fentanyl for 13 years now. Every day. But that's the deal now, or I can't walk.

I have met a lot of good people here who have helped me turn these bad decisions around for me. I actually found out, through the services at National Alliance on Mental Illness, that I was trying to cover up my mental illness with drugs and alcohol, the pain and all of that. And now I actually have a real job and I just got a home like two months ago. Everything is now going great.

Thinking of being homeless, the hardest part for me is the stigma of it and the way people look at you. I want people to look at me like I'm a productive citizen and like a veteran. And that people see that I want to get better and I'm trying. People do judge you when your homeless. When they see you with a backpack on and dirty clothes they say, "Look at that bum", but you are not a bum. That hurts. And also it's so hard to be in survival mode at all times. It's really hard. It's hard to keep a job cause how do you take a bath or buy a car or how do you pay rent, when you're just in survival mode every day of your life.

As I said, I'm 63 and I feel older than dirt, but I still have dreams. I've been sober for quite a while now and my sister and her husband have been over to my house several times. I am getting to see my children again, which is very emotional for me. My dream is to get my family back cause I have everything in the world I want right now otherwise. My family is all I want.

How to help the homeless? An easy thing is simply talking to them, you know. Ask them if they need something, try to help your fellow man. And just quit stereotyping people, because everybody is the same when it comes down to it. Nobody is better than anyone else. We’re all the same.