[Slow Piano Music]
I had been working in restaurants for
about 13 years in management. Um, I
decided to take a jump and go to a
completely different industry. However,
after the first month, the owner of the
company stopped paying me. And after 9
weeks of not getting paid, I
unfortunately lost the the place I was
living. I uh ended up having to stay in
my truck with my two dogs because I
needed to keep shelter over my head. I
think it was maybe the 29th or 30th of
November. Either way, it was a Sunday
and that night was supposed to be the
beginning of the cold uh season and the
temperature was going to drop all the
way down to like between like 0 and 10.
Some of the people in the neighborhood
saw that my truck was being towed and
some of them brought over some sweaters.
One of them brought a tarp. I was able
to make a little makeshift, you know,
shelter for us. I had nowhere to go. So,
a a ACS gave me the Westside's phone
number. I called them directly. The
gentleman I spoke with told me where
where I was physically at that
only just a couple of blocks away
there's a bus system that runs and you
just have to go wait for the bus. All I
needed was a chance to get some rest,
cleaned up. You get three meals a day.
It's safe. It's warm in the winter time.
It's cool in the summertime.
You're not, you know, you're not
constricted to stay there. There's bus
systems to get you to and from, you
know, it's it's not what you think it is
or what you've heard it is. It's a much
better situation. You get an actual bed
that's like wider than a single, you
know, like it's not just a twin
mattress. Like it's a it's bigger. You
have an actual bed. You have space. They
give you a locker, you know? like you
can feel safe there. Just walking in to try to like let
people know about my own sober living
program. I've seen a huge difference
compared to like when I was there, you
know, like and even while I was there, I
saw this progression of like as as
people were getting kind of moved out,
other people coming in, I saw like just
the shift in tone of the whole place,
you know, and now some of the people
that I've spoken to, they just love that
like the renovations that are being done
in the dorms, you know, they're they're
feeling a lot of more comfortable there,
which is great, you know.
[Slow Piano Music]