The only thing I can say about being homeless is you couldn't find a more degrading thing
to happen to a person, never.
The way I think I'm homeless is the winter time, it's cold, it's just cold.
For me, living on the street was like living in a tunnel, you could see the light ahead
but then all of a sudden the light is getting dim and I'm not realizing that you're walking
backwards.
There's no discretion for the pain and suffering, you know, you have to experience it yourself,
you have to be out there on the street to really understand what I'm trying to say.
My first two traumas were going to sleep, hoping that nobody would bust us out of my
head.
There were no switches on trains, always with one eye open.
The one thing that made me uncomfortable a lot of times was new faces, people I'd never
seen before, because they can hurt you.
People around me were getting stabbed, beat up, but there was a time when I thought I
was next.
I got sick of that life real quick, really quick.
I was a kid, nice to see them, drinking the wine around the thing, nobody really thinks
that you're going to be there, you don't really look at that, nobody wants to be homeless.
I was born on the 4th of July in the Bronx and I lived a really great life, I had the
best mother and father you could possibly have, and I can't say anything about my life
being unhappy until I became homeless.
I got involved with drugs, that took a lot of money from me, even though I was working
I became homeless, because I was addicted to cocaine.
My father really never talked to me, he would only beat me, I guess I was stupid, but he
was a good man, because I still love him.
We had to find the house, right there on the Park Avenue, and when he sold the house and
I didn't go get a job, I had to leave the house, but you know, using drugs, you don't
worry about those things until it happens.
I was born in Panama, came to New York at the age of 15, I joined the military in 1981
when I came out of the military in 1987, found myself involved in the use of drugs, I became
homeless for the first time, I went into a program and I managed to stay clean for a
long period of time, and eventually I found myself back out of the street.
I did spend some time at this president's location here, about 6 to 9 months, it wasn't
a pleasurable place to be, but at the time it was the only place I had to be, at least
I thought it was the only place I had.
Over the last four or five years, the city has adopted a street to home plan for homeless
individuals.
The Housing First model says that you take these individuals, you move them directly
into permitted housing, and instead of trying to cure their problems before they move into
permitted housing, you work with them after they get their own apartments.
That kind of broke a lot of barriers with clients and opened a lot of other avenues
because now, you know, you can meet the client where they at.
Once these individuals move into supportive housing, then the substance abuse and the
mental illness is treated.
Their surroundings have changed, they're not vulnerable, they enter permanent housing
that they selected, that they chose, and that they work for.
They focus a lot more and they focus on life changes.
It's a lot easier to work on your problems if you have a decent place to stay.
In the Bronx, groups that work with this chronically homeless population actually get along.
We've had to work very closely with other city agencies to coordinate services, including
the Parks Department, the Police Department, the Department of Buildings.
The visiting nurse services of New York has been a key partner from day one.
Citywide harm reduction provides services to a lot of our clients.
Montefiore Hospital has been another key partner.
They provide medical services in a respectful and flexible manner to our population.
We've had excellent relationships to make sure that people who have chosen to live on
the street remain safe and people are offered a decent place to go.
Bronx Works, I think, has really led the way in New York City.
Our focus has been on working with chronically homeless individuals and actively trying to
link them with supportive housing.
The first time I came in contact with Bronx, well, so that's when they came in contact with
me was at this present location right here.
When you're around in the street, as long as I was out on the street, you lose your
trust in people, even good people, you know, that you know what we'll do, you know, harm.
It was too good to believe that somebody wanted to help me.
When the outreach team came along, I kind of praised them because I even cried because
someone came to me.
We have our outreach team that travels all over the Bronx 24 hours a day to locate clients,
engage with them, and kind of build a rapport with them in the streets, in the bushes, under
train stations, under the bridges.
We take pride in the fact that we know every single chronically homeless person who is
staying on the street in the borough.
We list these individuals, we come up with plans for these individuals, and we work really
hard on getting these plans in place that will eventually lead to them being off the
street.
We see them every day.
We meet them at their location, we work with them from where they at, and, you know, we
just keep engaging them, you know, if the day doesn't work, we go tomorrow, we go the
next day.
They'll come to me, but then I have to go looking for them, they'll come to me on a
particular daily basis and come check on me all hours of the day, all hours of the night.
Wake me up, take me to welfare, buy me breakfast.
During the winter months, they'll start to come back two or three times a day and check
on all the other veterans and all the other homeless people out here also.
And I stuck with it.
We show that we have a lot of passion for what we do.
We've been really disciplined about taking all the steps that you have to take to get
somebody off the street.
They'll do everything they can to help you out, you know, they don't sit on their asses
and they'll tell you one thing or promise you something and they'll never do, you know.
Once they say they're going to stick with you, they'll stick with you all the way to
the end.
So once, you know, they see that we persist in and that we don't give up on them, you
know, that kind of, I guess it kind of opens them up to actually want them to work with
us.
I was one of the most number one in my heart.
I think that there is a myth that homeless people want to be homeless.
The fact is that if you ask almost any homeless person what they want the most, what they
want is their own apartment.
So what we've tried to do is link people to directly what they tell us that they want.
It wasn't too long after that that I wound up in the most beautiful place that I think
I've ever lived.
And I'm thankful for what makes that place beautiful.
Well, besides it being mine.
I wasn't going to take it, but then I took it because to get off the street.
I'm in a one bedroom apartment, that's where it consists of me and a safe haven in place
to keep myself focused on what I needed to do for myself and that was achieve sobriety.
And I can cook my own food now.
And I watch my own TV without anybody telling me anything.
Hey, here's the whole difference in the world.
I got my own keys, I don't got to share my bathroom with nobody.
I'll be fighting when nobody be knocking on my door making noises late at night.
I'm in paradise.
I can describe it.
For me, it's paradise.
It's good.
It's a good feeling.
This is something that I cherish, something that I truly work for and not just something
that was given to me without any effort on my part.
When I come into my apartment, it feels that it's my place.
It feels comfortable.
I'm just happy.
I'm just so grateful, man.
Save my life.
Save my life.
Fifteen years ago when we started working with the street homeless population, we did
account and within a ten block radius, we were able to count roughly 100 people living
on the street in that area.
Now I don't think you could find more than a couple.
Since 2005, there's been a remarkable 80% reduction in street homelessness in the Bronx.
I think that the Housing First model is directly responsible for the sharp reduction in homelessness.
We think that the reduction in chronic street homelessness has significantly improved the
quality of life in this borough, and that is a fact that we're especially proud of.
I'm sort of back in my own neighborhood, but this time with a good vibe, drugs just
left my life.
My daughter stayed with me now.
She visits me and she's in college.
We got a good relationship and everything.
Five years from now, I want to be healthy and strong.
I would like to be employed somewhere, doing something in a human service field.
Having my own business, entire business.
Art reach, you know, it is possible to work with Bronxwood.
I'm so happy being where I am right now, I'm not worried about five years from now.
I mean that.
One thing that made me so proud of being in the apartment and so like that is the fact
that I come to realize that there is hope.
Most homeless people are very intelligent people.
But when you lose that perspective, when you actually gave up a life, then that's when
you caught it.
And that's one thing I didn't lose.
That's why it's my job.
You
