Sandon's Story

"Everybody who is homeless was somebody else before," says Sandon. "But when you're homeless, you're nobody."

Sandon has been homeless for almost 7 years. "I come from a middle class family and thought it could never happen to me. But through choices of my own I had to hit the streets." he says. Before that, he was a blue collar worker. Among his homeless friends there other blue collar workers that have worked the beef plant, sugar factory and cook.

"One conversation that you don’t have is: what you did before you were homeless," he says. "It's just too painful."

Sandon is one of Morgan’s numerous homeless people, a number that's hard to peg.

"Nobody knows for sure because it's so difficult to count them," says Pam Hernandez, assistant director. "There are people sleeping in abandoned house, on the streets, in shelters, behind bushes, in their cars. There are couch surfers, who are crashing with friends and family. All we know is that the numbers are increasing because of the economic downturn."

Sandon’s day begins either at sunrise or when the first person comes along, whichever is sooner. "You learn to 'sleep with one eye open,' as we say in the homeless community. Whenever you hear the sound of approaching footsteps you have to wake up right away, because you never know who it might be."

The first order of business is finding something to eat for breakfast, -- usually leftover from the night before or going without.

After breakfast, cleaning up the best he can before looking for work. Several days a week he collects junk or scrap metal to sell. If he is fortunate to be around town he heads to Caring Ministries for the in house lunch. He has also had lunch brought back from Caring Ministries by one of the other guys.

Dinnertime comes and it is time to search for something to eat. If he is lucky he might find someone to share their dinner and if not he will go without. There are many days that lunch is the only meal Sandon might receive.

Though bone-tired from the daily grind, he is a happy sort of guy and thankful for everything he receives throughout the day.

As night approaches comes the burden of finding a place to sleep. Whether it is inside or out, he won't fall asleep right away. "Too risky," he says. "You have to memorize every sound first, to know which ones are dangerous and which ones you can safely ignore. I have to be on guard so that my belongings won’t get stole while I sleep."

Then the next morning he's up to start the whole grind all over again. For many homeless people, it feels like a vicious cycle they can never escape.

"A job? That's a remote possibility, it's not even a consideration for most homeless people," says Sandon. "We don't even have an address for employers to respond to, much less a place to store our job interview clothes, assuming we have any. Thanks to Caring Ministries I am able to go and get a few clothes here and there.