Focus Group-CFH Day Center Colleen: So, I’m here with George, Robert and Olin from the Day Center in Bellevue, and we’re just going to talk a little bit about your experience. I’d just like to kind of go around, and if you could take a minute or two to just kind of tell your story about why you’re here today, kind of what got you here, where you came from. You know, any little just sort of something about who you are and what you’re doing here. That would be a great start. George: Well, my name is George Myers [sp] and I live in Redmond. And my story, well like I was doing good, and eventually I had a relapse. And I’m not blaming nobody, or nothing and I was clean for ten years. And I had a relapse and I lost my job, and now I’m better. I found me another job. I’m trying to get on my feet. I come to this place here, just to take a shower and to have breakfast. And usually, I go back out and look for a job. Because I can’t sit in no library all day, and I can’t just walk around town doing nothing. I feel like I’m wasting my time doing that. And I feel like I can’t fly a sign [sounds like], because I won’t do that. Just I have some kind of pride about myself. My thing is I’ve been cooking for forty years, so I feel like I got from eight o’clock to two o’clock to go find me a job. And I can’t make nobody hire me. I can only fill out the application, and give them my resume, and let it go from there. Now, I done met a few people in Redmond, where I went there and tell them I’m homeless. And the next thing I know, they showing me the front door, but I’m not mad. I just say hey, this is their business and they can do what they want. You know, man. But if I try not to lie, I try to tell them the truth and sometimes, it comes back to bite me in the butt. And I say to myself, well I should have just lied. Then I say no, eventually he’s going to come back and catch me anyway, so I’d rather just tell the truth. Okay, I can give a good example. Last night, I got hired at Denny’s. Yeah, for four days straight, this man had me come there every day. He just wanted to see how bad I wanted the job. And I told him look, you know, the night before last, I told him the truth. It was hurting my head. I was getting a headache, sitting here trying to lie to him. And I just couldn’t do it no more. I said look, I’m going to tell you the truth. I said look, I stay in a cubby-hole right back here behind this bridge. You know what I’m saying? And I told him everything. He say, you could have been [inaudible words] first, and he said, I figured that when you first came in here. He said, I was just waiting for you to tell me too. See, he already knew. You know, man? But see, something told me, George, you need to tell the truth. It was just eating at me. I mean, just the day before yesterday, I’d sit there and it would just tear me up. I said, I need to go tell this man the truth. And when I told him, he hired me. You know what I’m saying? I was cool with that, and he even fed me. He said man, I know you’re hungry. Go ahead. I’m going to give you, order something off the menu. At first, I was going to say no. He said no, don’t let your pride get you. He said, don’t let your pride get you. He fed, I finished my paperwork, came here and told what’s his name this morning. Colleen: Good for you. That’s great. Congratulations. George: Thank you. Colleen: Olin? Olin: Me, I’m a busted up unit. I used to enjoy the extreme sports. My jobs were dangerous. I used to climb trees. I used to ride horses on the tracks in New Mexico, Phoenix, and California. And I’ve done all kinds of stuff, and I was a ski patrolman, and just I loved the danger. My body got busted up really good, and I can’t do the things that I used to be able to do. I’m disabled. I can’t run anymore. I can’t ski no more. I can’t do nothing. So I went to the bottle. And that’s basically, I have bouts with that, and I’ll get sober for a while. And then I mean, like a couple of years ago, I had three years’ sobriety and I just couldn’t stand it no more. I told this social worker one time some stuff about me, and I won’t go into that right now. But I mean, it pains me right here, that I can’t do that stuff no more. I mean, sometimes I just figure, what else is there for me to do but drink? I mean, it just changes my head, changes the way I think. And it brings me up a little the next morning. I have a hangover and I don’t like it. Yeah, I mean. Colleen: How did you end up here in East King County? Olin: Well, before I was diagnosed with bilateral avascular necrosis of the hips, I was invited up to Alaska to do some caribou hunting. And when I got here to Seattle, I called my Eskimo buddy up there. And he said, you know what? This is a bad time. I don’t think you could come up right now, because we’re having some really bad family problems. So, I just got stuck here. And I mean, I found a job climbing trees and I was making good money. And then in, what was it, ‘03, I got diagnosed with avascular necrosis. And I mean gradually, from that point to 2005, January 2005, I couldn’t walk without two canes. And I’m pretty ambulatory now, but I still can’t run. I still can’t do the things that I used to love to do. And it hurts, yeah. So, I suppose I could do some light labor, or light duties, or go back to school. But I mean, my mom went back to school, graduate school at sixty years old. And, I mean, my mom’s my hero. But I just don’t see myself doing that, because I tried to go to college. I did a semester at Oklahoma University. I did a semester at UNM. I’m still floating a 3.5 GPA. I just couldn’t sit in class for a couple of hours at a time. Colleen: Do you mind saying how old you are? Olin: I’m forty-seven. Yeah. I’m still young. I mean, especially to have two brand new hips. Colleen: Which you have? Olin: Yeah. And they wanted to replace my knee. I got a bad knee. This is just a different story altogether. Colleen: Is that a broken wrist? Olin: No, it’s nerve damage. Colleen: Nerve damage? Olin: Rotary nerve. Yeah. I get mad when I’m drunk, and this time, I just hit a post. Colleen: Hurt yourself, okay. Olin: Yeah. Colleen: Robert? Robert: When I came here to cleaned up. Well, I try to stay clean. I try to stay neat, keep my hair short, just like George. And because I found out if I don’t let myself get down and out from being down and out, it makes it easier to look for work, get on my feet. People look at you differently. If you look down and out, most people are going to treat you that way. If you’re always looking neat and clean, and you’re respectful, then people later on find out you’re homeless, they’re likely to say well, he’s trying to do something. You seem different. But anyway, I’ve been going to school and a lot for a while. And last year, I started working steady, and I wanted to get my own business going. I was doing temp work, keeping money in my pocket. And then I got injured, twisted my knee real bad, and I couldn’t work all summer. And it took me almost until November where I could walk right. And so now, I’m just getting back on my feet. I’m just starting to do some more temp work, and I’m going to just pick up the pieces and move on. You know, I’m not all depressed and beat up. I don’t need to drink every day, because I’m a failure, and all the more failure because I drink. I just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other. If I had to work the rest of my life doing temp work, as long as I could stay neat and clean, and get me a little place to stay at, I could live with that.