KEVIN: “It’s rough living on the street. It gets pretty cold in the winter. Finding the simple amenities sometimes is hard, like finding a place to use the restroom. Simple things like that. I go to different churches for meals, and if it’s cold, I go to the shelter or sometimes to the Room in the Inn. You heard of that place? I haven’t always been on the street. Life used to be pretty good. I was born here in Memphis. My mother was a nurse and she got a job at one of the hospitals up in Milwaukee, so we moved. I was a teenager when we left, so I finished high school up there. After that, I got recruited for football to the University of Minnesota. Went four years and majored in history. I was fortunate enough to make it into the NFL as a free agent. Played for the San Diego Chargers. I was bringing in good money playing ball, but I didn’t know what to do with it. They don’t teach you how to manage it. Played for four years, but then I got hurt, couldn’t make the team anymore, and I lost it all. Some have lost millions. After that, I went back to Milwaukee and got a job working for the state of Wisconsin as a youth counselor. I worked that job for 9 years. Then my father got sick here in Memphis. I knew he was dying, and I came back to be with him. I lived with him for a while and had a job with Zomax out in East Memphis --- it was a distribution company --- but they closed down and moved out of the state. Then my father passed away. That was about three years ago, and since I’d lost my job and I didn’t have any income, I couldn’t afford to keep a place to live. It made life difficult. Some people told me about the Union Mission, so I stayed there for a while. Now I stay wherever I can find. I hope I can get another job and make my way back up again. I wish somebody had told me there were going to be rough times ahead, that I needed to put something back. You never know what’s going to happen. You could be up one day and completely down the next.”
CM: “When you think about what it's like to live on the street, what do you want people to know? How do you want to be treated out there?”
KEVIN: “I want to be treated like a human being. Maybe I’m just down on my luck, but I’m still a human being.”
CM: “When you think about what it's like to live on the street, what do you want people to know? How do you want to be treated out there?”
KEVIN: “I want to be treated like a human being. Maybe I’m just down on my luck, but I’m still a human being.”
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