Cherry
My name is Cherry and the reason I got on the streets was...its very hard to explain.
Well I was living in Porter, Texas with my adoptive parents and once I turned 18, and my check got cut off, its like my adoptive dad was basically saying, “Get the hell out of my house. You ain’t getting no money no more. Get on. I don’t want you here.”
And when I was a kid, I bit him on the leg and called him a bastard. I was just...I was just four years old when I was...when I did that. And after that, I lived in Porter for not even a month. I went to Houston, stayed there for about 4 years, came to Austin, two...three years ago, was here for about 8 months. Left and came back just two years ago. And I’ve been here since then. And I’ve been trying to get into housing. I get food stamps, I get my disability. Working on trying to get into a house, and I’m working on getting classes for the baby stuff.
Ninja Mike
My story is actually pretty interesting, but sad at the same time. I was going to school through the art institute of Pittsburgh for game design, online division. And, my son’s mother decided to move my son to Houston without telling me. And because I couldn’t help take care of him, she decided to come after me for child support. And they started $200 out of my disability money. So I went from making $700 on disability to making $500. Lost my housing. I had a desktop computer with internet and everything. Lost all that and I lost my schooling, lost my housing. Ended up out here and I’ve been here for two years.
I was in the process of going to school when....I lost everything. But it’s alright. I got another one on the way. Seven months.
It’s a boy. Darwen Benjamin Joel Berry...
But I’ve got two signs that go back to back. One of them says, “Obama says change is coming. I’ve been looking. Can you spare some?” The one that goes after that says, “God bless people like you so you can bless people like me. The more jobs sent overseas, the more homeless you’ll see. So bless a bum today.”
Those signs are me though.
