We shed light
Name: Fred Pece
Duration of Homelessness: Since 2006
Background: Worked at the Lincoln Greyhound racetrack
Interests: Music (country, jazz, Beethoven, rock ‘n’ roll)
What have you learned?: You have to be self-sufficient. If you want to get up and do something, do it.
Plans: To raise money to help the permanently homeless
Dreams: “I would like to see everyone off the streets and into a decent house.”
By David Eisenberger
I’m a staff writer for Street Sights. I’m a Vietnam era vet. I’m also unemployed and homeless. I live in a shelter, but I have a bed and a meal, so I don’t have it as bad as other homeless people.
This is a typical Tuesday for me:
♦ At the shelter, the lights go on at 6 a.m., which gives me about an hour to prepare myself for a day in the city.
♦ I’ll drop my belongings at Crossroads RI, so I don’t have to carry more weight than I can carry, and head off into the city. Continue reading ‘A Day in the Life of a Homeless Veteran’
Duration of Homelessness: Off and on
Background: Cook
Interest: Sports, reading, bike riding
What I have learned: You have to look out and take care of yourself because the system won’t help you.
Plans: To become employed
Advice: Keep your head up
Dreams: To have my own home and family
Duration homeless: Six years homeless.
Background: I’m trying to get my life back together. I had a bout with post traumatic stress disorder and depression, and I was self-medicating with alcohol, which finally got me into a hospital. I’ve been in a shelter for about a year. I find shelter life appalling. A lot of help out there is accessible, but some providers treat information as if it’s classified, or on a “need to know” basis. You have to be very specific with what you ask and whom you ask it to [in order to get information]. Continue reading ‘Sarge: Problems Started with PTSD Followed by Tumble into Depression’
By Mary Rogers
Homeless since: April 2008.
Background: [Owl is between 18 and 25 years old.] I was a Navy brat born in Iceland. My family moved around a lot. I got arrested when I was traveling through Rhode Island. I did nine months at the ACI. I was released from prison into homelessness. When I tried to have my probation transferred to a place where I could live, they denied my transfer. Continue reading ‘One of Us: A Man Known as Owl’
By Brynn McNally
Name: Mary Alison Cantrell
Age: 48
Homeless since: March 2006
Background: A native of Westerly, Rhode Island, Alison is a long-time victim of abusive relationships. After a difficult breakup with her boyfriend and the death of her father in 2006, Alison was forced to turn to the streets. Alison is a former bus driver and Certified Nurse’s Aid, but she has had trouble finding work in the past few years. Continue reading ‘Homelessness Has Many Faces’
By Daniel Blankenship
I met John at Amos House working his way through the program.
In a way just like most there, he was trying to put his life back together.
Through talking to him I found an interesting person with a story and a talent for drawing. Continue reading ‘Featured Artist: Love of Art Has Kept this Bahamian at the Drawing Board Since Childhood’
By Stan Kaplewski
When Mark Carbone was 11 years old in 1972 he began playing alto sax in the sixth grade, at the Ponageset Middle School in West Scituate. His first music teacher was George Lessard.
Although Carbone lived in a poor family, his mother managed to get him a brand new saxophone. In the eighth grade, he joined the high school band and Band Director Nedo Pandolfi suggested that he should take private lessons with Anthony DiNoble (formerly of the Stan Kenton Orchestra). After the first lesson, DiNoble told Pandolfi that Carbone was terrible, but he kept Carbone on as a student because Pandolfi argued that he saw something in him. Continue reading ‘Featured Artist: Sax Appeal from a Young Prodigy’