STEVEN

PHOTO BY RANDY BACON

STEVEN’S STORY

I hadn’t took a lot of time out to enjoy life, so I quit my job. I got a brother and I got my mom. My stepdad, he was murdered. My real father, he is a no good piece of shit. I mean, molested me and my brother when we were younger. My stepdad had tried to adopt us. He was with my mom for over ten years. I was the last one to see him alive, and the one that had to tell my mom when he was shot and killed. I tried to take care of my mom the best that I could. I made a promise I would, and I’ve been trying to keep the promise.

I’m twenty-nine now and I’ve been homeless now going on four years. Been homeless when me and my mom moved back here. She had a bad relationship where we were. The dude beat her, and we tried to come back here, and we were supposed to get picked up by my grandma, but she never came and picked us up. So ever since then we were on the streets. My mom‘s got cancer and everything. It’s more important to me to get her off the streets than me getting off the streets. I’ve been working on myself, but I just can’t seem to keep myself off the streets ya know. I get off, and I come right back on. I’ve got too many friends out here, I can’t see them be out here alone you know.

They say you’ve got family that you’re born I guess born into, and then you’ve got family you choose. I got my street families, and I love them with all my heart. Having them helps me deal with being homeless. And I do a lot of drugs. I used to be a bad alcoholic, and I quit doing that finally. It took me a while to quit drinking, but I did, and now I have grand mal seizures from it though. I went from drinking six fifths a day to nothing, and now I have grand mal seizures from that. I quit a lot of my drugs, but there are some I still do. I’m getting ready to face prison time because of it, and that worries me.

It’s wintertime really that’s tough being homeless. Summertime I don’t mind it. The wintertime though..it’s so cold and people will just walk and see us and they don’t care. I mean it’s ridiculous how they don’t care, how they treat us like dog shit. They spit on us.

I want people to know that I am worth something. I mean, my dad put good values in me. You gotta treat people the way you want to be treated. You want respect, then you gotta give them respect. I don’t want people feeling sorry for me, but I want them to understand that I am a human being. That’s right, we are humans. From being homeless I’ve learned that life is valuable. I’ve seen a lot of my friends freeze to death out here and it’s hard. I mean, life is short, live it to the fullest. You are worth something. And you can go out there you’ll find true friends. Look deep inside yourself.

My dream is to eventually get off the streets. I just talk to God about it and he keeps telling me to have faith, eventually it will work out. And that’s what I wake up and hope every day. Don’t give up. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, just don’t give up.