Living Outside

Man sleeping on the stairs

Hanibaael/Flickr

Trying to find a secluded place and keep people out. That was hard at first, walking all night with nowhere to go. I started to think about how I got put out of the shelter. Then I remembered that I got stabbed in front of it. Crying tears in my heart: what did I do to deserve this? Screaming at night, walking down by the Potomac talking to myself, not knowing what to do.

This is around people I thought were my friends. But they laugh at me at night because they found out I was sleeping in the stairway of the building. They talked about me. So I stopped coming around them — it hurt me to hear that. At the time, my mother was on crack cocaine. So I really went through something right there.

At night time I walked down by the water a lot thinking  about how I can’t get a job. No training, no career — so who will hire me? No one.

Then I talked to Mr. Paul. He owns the liquor store near Channel 5. There’s a garage in back of the store. So I stay there in the back of that place in the rain, the sleet, and the snow.

Right now it is really hot in there. But I am staying strong and staying clean.


Issues |Health, Mental|Hunger|Living Unsheltered|Shelters


Region |Washington DC

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