By Bo
First and foremost, I thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who made everything possible.
It was seven o’clock in the morning and I was at the shelter but couldn’t check in until after 4 p.m. I had three bags so I couldn’t walk around easily. It just so happens that there was a bus stop right in front of the shelter so I sat there to gather my thoughts.
At that moment, in the summer of 2024, my mind was battling my current situation. I hadn’t accepted where the journey had led me. I couldn’t believe that somehow I was actually homeless and sitting here with nowhere to go. The easiest solution was to leave the state and go where my people were. However, I already knew that I was led on a path and that I had to walk it out.
After sitting there with my head hanging low, I went to ask if I could at least use the bathroom in the shelter. The staff told me “no” because only people who were in programming could use the shelter’s amenities during the day. But they directed me to another day shelter where I could use the bathroom. Someone offered to show me where the shelter was and help me carry one of my bags.
At 4 p.m. I took off to leave for shelter, but as I walked in the alley I saw someone slip into another building which I was instructed to go to. It turns out it was another day shelter called Corpus Commons.
Like a wild horse, I had to be broken before progress could be made. Years ago, I had landed in a shelter when I got out of prison and had no place to go. It’s disheartening to sit the day away with nothing constructive to do but be in shock of where life landed me.
In the evening, I checked into Interfaith Sanctuary’s emergency shelter, and saw that the tent city outside was reminiscent of the movie Scarface. If you recall the opening scene it’s a camp full of people in army tents on the side of the freeway… and what do you know people actually were in army tents on the side of the freeway in Cooper Court outside of the shelter.
I had been up all day and was craving sleep. I remember crawling in one of the tents and laying down on green turf waiting to be assigned a locker at 7 p.m., then a bed at 8 p.m. Not to judge, but it was a very humbling experience. I got a bed that night and slept which concluded my first day of homelessness.
The next day, I went to Corpus Commons. I hung out there all day but didn’t talk to anyone. In my eyes, I was still myself but in a foreign world. I was a clean-cut dude who people thought I didn’t fit in with the homeless crowd. Their assumptions and stereotypes made me mad because l was really in a vulnerable state of homelessness.
But my spirit still needed to be broken down even more.