It’s summer and many people have a second home to get away from the heat. Well, so does Rick. He lives homeless in a tunnel underneath Las Vegas. When the weather is hot like the day we visited he lives near the end of the tunnel because there is a breeze. When colder weather comes he goes deeper into the tunnel for warmth.

Rick has lived in the tunnels off and on for six years. He survives by panhandling, pumping gas, washing windows and odd jobs. He tries to work instead of begging for change.

As we were walking down into the tunnel one of Rick’s friends told me Rick helped him get off the streets by giving him hope. When I asked Rick about this he said, “that’s just what I do”.

I wonder what the world would be like if every person just helped one person get out of homelessness.

Special thanks to Matthew O’Brien

I met Jose in Salt Lake City while I was handing out socks. He’s homeless because he can’t find any work lately, and he wasn’t able to pay rent at his apartment.

He sleeps by the river, and when we talked, he was excited to have just received a sleeping bag from the shelter and some socks from me.

It’s been twenty-three years since Jose moved to America from Mexico, and Salt Lake City is his favorite place.

Sandy sleeps in a sleeping bag on the sidewalk in Berkley, California because it’s against the law to sleep in her car. She’s on the verge of mental illness from life on the streets.

The thing keeping her unemployed? Her age. She says that’s the main factor keeping her from finding work, and she’s living a “completely miserable” life on the streets.

She runs to get away from people who are up all night with drugs and additions. This, full shelters, and the outlawing of sleeping in a car led her to slip into a church to sleep one night. The next morning, she awoke to a $400 ticket for trespassing. Of course, she can’t pay this, and now has an outstanding warrant.

She doesn’t qualify for mental health assistance. She’s not quite old enough for senior assistance. And no one wants to hire someone her age. Sandy, and others who are homeless at her age, are truly part of a forgotten generation.

Until my recent trip to Anchorage, Alaska, I had never heard the term “Chronic Public Inebriate,” yet in Alaska the word “inebriate” is spoken everywhere. It is so grafted in Anchorage’s culture that even the homeless call themselves inebriates. At first it bothered me, but I soon learned that Anchorage’s homeless problem is very complex, caused by severe alcohol addictions.

I met Kim while he was panhandling on the side of the road. His wife had gone up the street for a cup of coffee. Although to an Alaskan this last week was a bit of a heat wave, I still had a hard time holding the camera without gloves because it was so cold. Probably around 35 degrees!

Kim started drinking when he was nine years old, and he’ll be fifty-two this May. Alcoholism is a horrible disease. Looking in from the outside, people think that drinking is a choice. But at some point along the way, alcohol completely takes over and the choice is gone. Alcoholics need booze just like we all need air, making it nearly impossible to stop. Add to that the dehumanizing experience of living without permanent shelter and people will drink until they die, which is what’s happening in Alaska.

Kim is very knowledgeable about laws that local city governments are trying to pass to solve this crisis. No matter what laws are passed, people addicted to alcohol will find a way to get it. Kim talks about his friends drinking Listerine when they cannot get served. One of his friends was the first homeless inebriate found dead last year. The man’s body was found with an empty bottle of Listerine next to it.

I wish I had answers for Kim and the people of Alaska. Please watch this video and share it with everyone you know. People are dying, and we must find a solution.

Special thanks to Hertz

Anchorage’s local NBC affiliate aired a story on my visit

I met Michael on the streets of Denver, playing his guitar. After being a personal nurse for someone who kicked him out, he returned to the streets he’d been on for 20 years before.

Michael never panhandles; instead he plays his acoustic guitar on the streets. If you listen to him, it’s not hard to imagine how he makes enough money to get by. But recently, the Denver police have been cracking down on ordinances that ban him from playing music between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., despite being quieter than the loud buses and bars around him.

It’s hard to see how such talented people (like Rico from last week) can end up in such tough circumstances. How many people with hope and talent do we pass each day, dismissing them because they have nowhere to call home?

***Michael sang his three wishes making this one of my all time favorites

Shawn moved to Colorado to be with someone, but then they broke up. As of March 2007, he was still working some, but also living in a shelter. He was frustrated at the way the shelter was treating the homeless of Boulder.

Shawn had plenty of wisdom to share and some challenges to the shelters in Boulder:

“You want to create an atmosphere where people feel good about themselves…when you accomplish something, it makes you feel good inside. Most of us are trying to do the best we can. We made bad choices…but no one chooses to be homeless.”

There are times he wants to sit down and give up, but he’s got possible job options ahead of him. I hope he chooses not to give up when he feels like it’s too hard and can help others choose the same.

Near the end Shawn shares some interesting points about poverty and homelessness. What do you think?

Boston has been on the street for 15 years. He has mental health issues, and he consistently fights with depression and addiction. As a child, he lost both of his parents–his mother to murder. From there, it was to his grandparents, an alcoholic and dysfunctional household.

He left there for the streets, and in his own words, he met a lot of good people with a lot of bad habits. With no alarm clock and no ability to shower, a job was hard to come by.

He was most grateful for clean socks. Thanks to Hanes, I was able to give him fresh socks, the one physical thing he was in most dire need of.

Boston sees a light at the end of the tunnel, and he sees a future for himself and his family. He was a true encouragement. His three wishes were only to help those around him. And he’s fine with being on the streets if that’s where he needs to be to help and bless others.

The truth that’s often lost is mental health issues could happen to any of us, or any of the ones we love. But we often view them and the homeless who experience them as beneath us.

Here’s to hoping Boston keeps moving towards health and success

Brian has been without a home for the last 39-years. A Vietnam-era veteran who has recently discovered he is HIV-positive, he feels like he is still trying to find his way through life.

Now, he is experiencing homelessness and recovering from heroin addiction in Des Moines, Iowa, and he laments being 54-years old and trying to reassemble his life. He longs to go back to school and write self-help books.

Given three wishes, Brian would ask for a good life, peace in the world, and that the woman he loves wouldn’t drink so much and become angry with him.

It’s encouraging to meet a man with hopes stacked so high. At the same time, it’s disheartening to wonder if adversity is stacked just a little bit higher.

Gypsy is homeless on Iowa. The hardest part for her? Her children have been sleeping at a friend’s house for the past two months.

She gets to see her children during the day, but she wishes there were more to do. They can only stay in the public parks and attend free feedings. Some days, they misses these meals, and her children end up going without food.

Children should never have to suffer through homelessness.

Asked about her three wishes, she wishes for her children to be successful in their lives and for the people she’s met on the streets to do something positive with their life. After these two wishes for others, she can’t even think of a third.

Soon, Gypsy and her children will return to her home of Arizona thanks to the generosity of a church buying bus tickets.

Jody lives in her car, while her 19-year-old son Phillip lives in a shelter in St. Paul, Minnesota. After being unfairly evicted from her apartment, she sold all she had to buy a car to live in.

As I was giving out socks, Phillip approached me. His shoes have holes all the way through, so he is unable keep his socks from wearing out. That’s how I entered into my conversation with these two. Thanks to Hanes I was able to help with much-needed socks

Their three wishes are simple—an apartment, a job, and car repairs.

We don’t often consider that the face of homelessness starts young. I hope to meet Phillip again one day with a story of success and victory rather than perpetual homelessness.