Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human.
“I’ve been living here at Open Arms for a little over a year – and it’s been great. The staff at Open Arms are really, really great ladies. I was diagnosed with depression and stress. They really, really helped me out. I feel better about myself. I feel more independent. I can relax and not have to look over my shoulder about anything.
My happiest memory was traveling with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. I was working security at the DC Armory, and I came home from my security job and told my mom, ‘I’m going away with the circus.’ She said, ‘Girl you’re not going anywhere!’ I was in my late 20s. I said, ‘Yes I am!’ and started packing my bags. She said, ‘She’ll be back tomorrow.’ The next time I called my mom I was in Roanoke, Virginia. I’m from DC; I was born and raised in DC General. She was surprised that I had really left.
I traveled with them for three years, from 2000 to 2003. I was assistant animal trainer and animal caretaker. I took care of the elephants, the tigers, alpacas, all sorts of animals… the horses, everything. I had hands-on with all the animals. The elephants were my favorite. One elephant in particular… her name was Ciam. When I took a vacation she missed me, and when I came back she hollered and tooted her trumpet. I used to feed her by hand and give her sodas. She loved sodas.”
– Stacy
*Stacy lives at Open Arms Housing: The Mission of Open Arms Housing, Inc. is to provide permanent homes with a welcoming and supportive environment to women who are homeless with a variety of mental health issues. Our goal is to create safe, comfortable housing tailored to meet individual needs and to promote housing stability, using a Housing First approach.
Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human.
Author’s Note: In honor of International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, this week the Person First Project is featuring the powerful six-part story of a young, transgender individual named Lazema who is experiencing homelessness in our nation’s capital. We hope Lazema’s story will help raise awareness about the special and difficult challenges faced by transgender individuals, and particularly those experiencing homelessness.
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Have you ever experienced discrimination?
“Yes; as Lazema, as a woman, and as a man not dressing up. Because even when I’m not dressing as a woman I’m still very, very feminine, and you know people. When I was at [a local shelter] there is this guy there. He’s horrible. I’ll come in and he’ll be like, ‘So, do you want to suck my d*ck?’ I’m like, ‘What?!’ He can make life really hard for me if I’m not nice to him. And he kind of stated that ‘It can be easy for you here, or it can be hard for you here. If you accept my advances, if you let me toy with you, and you let me belittle you, you’ll have a really good time here. We’ll save your bed. You’ll be fine. But if not, things are going to be tough for you.’
For a time period I was going along with it. I never said, ‘Yes, I will suck your penis,’ but I was like, ‘Oh stop playing, I don’t do stuff like that,’ and just laughing it off. Then I got to this point where I was really angry. Like, why do I have to do this? Why can’t I just be cordial and respect you as an employee and then you’re just nice? Why do I have to go through all this? Why do I have to play all these gay games? Like to play with corn and like it. I have to perform like some kind of circus creature.
After I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do it,’ all hell broke loose. Every time I would walk past he would snicker, like high school. Or he would be like, ‘Ew!’ and try to sick the wolves on me. Sometimes when it was time for lights out he would let us charge our phones in the eating area, but since I wasn’t talking to him or indulging him he would tell the guys, ‘Usually I let you stay out here, but because somebody don’t want to leave (pointing to me) you all have to go back to your rooms.’ So everyone was mad at me. From that moment on they would be like, ‘Man you’re going to mess it up for us, so why don’t you just leave?’
One day… this is really the thing that got me mad. I had left [the shelter], but I had to be back before 9 o’clock. So I came back before 9 o’clock and he was like ‘No, we can take your bag if you’re not back in 30 minutes.’ I was like, ‘I didn’t know that.’ He said ‘It’s in the rule book.’ So I was there pleading with him, and he’s playing with me, playing the gay games again. There’s another guy there who’s gay but he’s not trans. He does everything [the shelter employee] says; he will fill his water up, he’ll take his soup and heat it up and bring it back. [The shelter employee] said, ‘See, you have to be like that. You have to be trained.’ I said, ‘You can’t train me.” He said, ‘Oh we’ll see.’ So a whole hour has passed and [the shelter employee] said ‘What’s my name?’ and [the gay man at the shelter] said ‘Big Daddy.’ So I had to call him Big Daddy. I played, and I called him Big Daddy. And he said ‘Your bag’s in the back.’ He had my bag the whole time. He made me think that he had given it away, just to make me call him Big Daddy. I felt so bad after that. I felt like … like, nothing. It was going to continue if I allowed it to.
It was really bad. But I had to put up with it, because it’s basically one of the cleanest shelters in D.C. There’s not a lot of people. If you’re a guy, you don’t have anything to worry about. But if you’re gay or trans, you have to deal with being treated really unfairly.
He didn’t see me like this [trans]. If he sees me like this, it’s going to be much worse. So, I was like, let me just leave. And that’s what I did.”
– Lazema
Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human.
“I like all my poems because they’re my writing. It’s a form of therapy for me – a form of escapism. I can escape from my reality, which is this. With words you can’t really explain everything, but when you put it down into structured words – then you can think.
My sister knows that I’m staying around here but she doesn’t know where. A lot of homeless people are like that, they don’t want their family members to worry about them. I’m healthy, I’m getting fed, I’m not sick. Mentally I may be a little bit… it’s a lot of mental stress. I do get depressed, I won’t deny it. I get stressed out and depressed. This kind of situation where you see the same faces every day and you see the same situation – it’s very depressing. The overall mood in shelters – there are a lot of sick, depressed, unhealthy people walking around. And when you see that every day it depresses you. Sometimes I get suspicious, like is this guy following me? But the thing is, I just see them every day so it seems like they’re following me, but they’re really just there. You see the same faces every day and sometimes you feel irritated because of it, so it’s a nice change that I’m talking to you today. Doesn’t happen every day.”
-Reaz in NoMa
Author’s note: Reaz is currently in a semi-permanent housing situation.
Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human.
“My name is Andre, a native Washingtonian, living here in Washington, D.C. I’m staying at a shelter in northeast called the ‘New York Avenue Shelter.’ It’s a building where they hold about 260 men. I’ve been there about 90 days. I’ve been homeless, but not helpless, for about three years.
I had done asbestos and lead removal, and restoration projects, like the U.S. Supreme Court and the Pentagon where the airplane crashed in 2001. Then it sort of bottomed out. There was a long period where work wasn’t really viable.
They had major companies here in Washington: Clark Construction and Miller and Long, which we call ‘Killer and Long.’ The reason why I mention those two companies is because these companies were supposed to hire D.C. residents. I was in the first ten to apply for a project called City Center. These were six brand new buildings that were gonna be built. We went to the trailer to apply; there was never a phone call from that particular location.
You don’t necessarily want to bring things back to the family. The family always would like for you to come to stay with them, but I felt that I should not bring my drama to them, and I knew that we had shelters where I could come and stay for a short period of time.
There are things that come about such as depression. There are situations where you are really trying to seek some training. And you extend yourself, hopefully trying to continue to try to find work, but then you can sometimes get caught up in feeling bad about yourself. You feel less than a man occasionally, because you don’t feel productive.”
-Andre
Author’s Note: Andre is currently experiencing homelessness. He is staying at the New York Ave. Shelter in Ivy City.
Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human.
“At the age of 13, I basically, I started a life of crime. I started selling weed. I was hustling other things. And I was using weed. I used to live and I lived to use. My being able to go to meetings and talk to my sponsor has allowed me to change some.
My biggest fear is failure. Well no, I’m gonna say success. I’m afraid of it because I’ve never had it. I want to go back to school. I plan on going back to school in the spring to study business administration.”
-Elijah (interviewed in Shaw)
Author’s Note: Elijah’s housing status is unknown
Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human.
What is your proudest moment?
“The delivery room, when my daughter was born.
All throughout the pregnancy I talked to her, and when she reached up and grabbed my goatee – I had goatee then – she knew me off the brink. And the nurse said, ‘She’s not crying, she’s smiling.’ That was a proud moment for me.”
-Otis, Bloomingdale
Author’s note: Otis is currently experiencing homelessness.
Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human.
Author’s Note: We don’t know Michael’s current housing status.
“I have bipolar disorder. In my past I lost my job for numerous reasons known as ‘being psycho.’ I was last working for a mental health center. I was staff, I wasn’t in for vocational rehabilitation. Long story short, I got fired. If I have mental disorder and a mental health center can’t keep me employed, who can?
This is my ninth time being homeless. I am on the streets. I find the shelter system and even the hypothermia shelters kind of volatile.
I have been at Adam’s Place primarily. Adam’s is way out there. I mean, there’s not even a bus that goes out there. So that’s a walk. And I get mental health care at a place called CareCo on Georgia Avenue, without bus fare – and keep in mind I’ll be carrying everything I own to and from the visit. I made about three visits and said this is enough.
It’s tough. From theft, to loss, to rain that dissolves pills. I had a vial [of medication], but it rained. Even with those little seals, there was enough rain in my bag that it destroyed the whole bottle. But I do try. In my early days, I was like, ‘I’m not mentally ill.’ In my first ten years I was treatment-resistant. Finally I owned up to the fact that I had an issue.
….
Imagine you’re without anything. You’re homeless. You’ve been out of the hospital. At that point you’re check to check. You don’t have money banked for six months’ rent. If you’re gone from your living situation for a month, which is usually the case, you lose everything you own. You’re evicted. You’ve lost your job. You’re back to square one. And all it takes is a month away.
Getting jobs was tough enough. Like, ‘Where were you the last month and a half?’ Well, I was in the shrink tank. Yeah right, we really want you. You can’t join the military. You can’t be a police officer. You can’t even get a gaming license, which means being a janitor at a casino.
I fought that for ten years, and I finally said enough’s enough. Trying to get jobs with a psychiatric history. And that’s been the story of why I’ve been homeless.”
– Michael
Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human. To read Alan’s full story, please visit Person First Project
Note: Alan is currently housed.
“I was homeless for six years all together; pretty well split between homeless on the street and homeless in the shelter system. I have experienced good and bad in people. I’ve asked someone what time it was and had them look at me like ‘What do you need to know what time it is for? You’re not going anywhere.’ I said ‘good morning’ to a lady one morning, and when she turned and she saw a homeless person, she turned her back. I didn’t ask her for anything, I just said good morning. So that was really bad.
But I’ve also experienced the good. I’ve experienced someone coming out of a restaurant with food, and just giving it to me, and I wasn’t even looking for it or asking for it.
One of the best good things I’ve experienced was this lady one winter morning. I was really cold, and this little old lady asked me my name – which was something that hadn’t happened in a couple of years – and said she was going to say a prayer for me, and gave me two dollars for a cup of coffee. I will always remember that lady for the rest of my life. I never have coffee and I don’t think of her. It wasn’t a long a conversation but, but she’s there every time I drink a cup of coffee.”
– Alan
Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human.
Author’s Note: Sareana and her mother are still in transition.
“It’s stressful to be in transition. At first it was, do we have a place to stay? Trying to figure out where we’re going to go, how it’s going to work, what do we need, what needs to get put away… it’s really living off the bare minimum. Do I know if I’m eating lunch today? How am I going to get around? Gas is expensive, the metro is expensive. There are a lot of things you don’t know, and you don’t know what tomorrow is looking like. For me it was about making the most of what I had at the time and trying to do the best I could.
I think when we were packing it still hadn’t hit me that we were going to leave our place and pretty much go to the car or with my friend. I think it hit me when we cleared out the place and we walked out. It was like well, we’re never coming back here again. We’ve had that place since forever, since I was young. It’s always been there. And it was something that’s been permanent and then all of the sudden we’re not there anymore. It was that really quick transition, I don’t know, I was expecting it right away – of course I was being told, but going from being told to actually seeing it happen is completely different.
There’s child support that comes in and that’s what we used for food. So it’s $500 a month – and that’s what we lived off of. I think we also got lucky when we were staying with other people, they were like ‘eat what you want’… they were very, very nice about it. We moved in with someone who I met through my advocacy work, who has a wife and a kid and a dog and they’re such a cute family, actually. We stayed with them for about a month. We agreed on a certain time that we’d be staying there and we obviously didn’t want to impose. They were having family coming over, and we hadn’t really planned ahead, so we were in the car for like a week.
Yeah, it’s not bad. Honestly, everyone’s like, ‘Oh my god, you stayed in a car!’ – We were lucky! We stayed in a car when it was warm outside, we had some nonperishable food that was left over – it wasn’t bad at all. It’s a Honda CRV so pretty big. It was not the most comfortable thing, I will tell you I probably woke up as soon as the sun rose, but it’s not bad. So the first night we parked in our storage unit and then we discovered there are cameras. So that wasn’t very smart. And then we parked on Beach Drive. It’s by Beach and Strathmore at that intersection. We would go there after-hours.”
– Sareana Kimia, age 16
At 16 years old, Sareana Kimia is now a youth advocate and local activist with her own non-profit, Youth for National Change. Please visit the Person First Project to read her whole story. If you feel motivated to help, she has created a GoFundMe page to support her education and her life. http://www.gofundme.com/
Person First Project is a photo blog that seeks to give those currently or formerly experiencing homelessness in D.C. the chance to share their stories. In doing this, we hope to reduce the barriers that separate people in D.C. and spark a dialogue. The Person First Project aims to connect us – and to make us all feel a bit more human.
“I went from a $2,800 a month, two bed, two bath condo to sleeping behind a condominium building and hiding underneath the steps ….I can recall the steps I was under. I think they were about three feet tall. I could sit underneath there. Living under there in the winter time, trying to stay warm, wondering if you were going to have to move first thing in the morning, in a blizzard. I was homeless before, on the street, in a blizzard. I can remember being blown across the street. I literally had to grab a hold of a pole to stop moving because of the wind. To stay warm on the streets in inclement weather is quite a challenge.
And then … I’m very conscious about my hygiene, about cleanliness. My wife and I, when we were together… have you ever seen the Odd Couple before? Felix and Oscar? My wife used to call me a black Felix. Being a marine too …so imagine the struggle of trying to keep your appearance up and stay clean. Everyone not wanting you to use their facilities. I used to go into a Starbucks or something, I’d go in there, in that bathroom and transform. I’d have bubbles everywhere. I’ve been fortunate and blessed that I was always able to find organizations that would assist me with hygiene products, clothing; little odd jobs here and there.
It takes a lot out of you, because a homeless individual has a much longer day than the average person. Whether he’s on the street or in the shelter, he has to hit the street and get moving at a very early time; it’s usually six in the morning, regardless of the weather. If you’re on the back dock somewhere, security’s coming in and you got to move on because what most people think of as the ‘real people’ are coming to go to work. Homeless people, and homeless veterans, are people too.”
– Robert (formerly homeless)
