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Robert's Smiling on the Inside
Robert grew up in
Philadelphia
and was the middle child in a family of 7.
During high school, he played sports and he was the captain of the
football team and a wrestler. After
high school, he decided not go to college and instead joined the Army, where
he was stationed in
West Germany
.
After he left the Army, he
went to
California
where he traveled all over the state. In 1981, Robert found himself
homeless for the first time. Before
that he “never had a clue that people were homeless or hungry.”
Over the next 9 years Robert would enter and leave programs designed
to help with his alcohol and drug addiction and while he would complete the
program he “always started homeless and ended homeless.”
Finally, in 1990, he entered a program with the Salvation Army in
California
and on July 13th made the commitment to get clean and stay clean.
He successfully completed the program and believed in it so much that
he traveled across the country to Atlanta in order to help set up a similar
program. The program fell
through but Robert found work with a furniture store.
After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the furniture store closed and
Robert was again homeless. He
moved to
Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida
in search of new opportunities. He began to work for Calvary House where
he was part of the custodial team that worked and lived on the church
grounds. Eventually he took a
job at a retail sports store but in January 2008 he was laid off.
It was at the same time that Robert found out his mother was ill and
decided to make the trip to
Dayton
to help care for her.
When he
arrived in
Dayton
, he found his mother was in a nursing home and he had no place to stay.
Robert entered the St. Vincent de Paul Hotel and it was there that he
connected with The Other Place and met Tony who became Robert’s case
manager. Tony was able to help
Robert get into the VA Per Diem Opportunity Housing program, and on
July 3, 2008, Robert moved into one of five VA Per Diem homes.
Tony also helped him find a job and he has been able to save money
for the first time in years.
This
July, Robert celebrated his one year anniversary in the VA Per Diem program.
He also celebrated 19 years clean and sober and his job went from
being temporary to permanent. As
for what Robert plans to celebrate next, well that’s easy.
He is working on buying his own home and he would like to run a
program that helps homeless veterans find homes.
He gives a lot of credit to his case manager Tony and says that the
VA Per Diem will be the first program he leaves where he is not homeless
like when he started. Today,
Robert finds himself smiling on the outside as well as on the inside because
“all is good today.”
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