Jack

Jack, 51, is from Evansville, Indiana where he says the shelters are much more welcoming than they are in San Diego. He’s trying to keep a positive attitude despite all the negativity directed at the homeless. “I don’t know why people are so down on the homeless,” he said. “They’re already down enough! I’d like to sit down with the head honchos, like the mayor.. I’d teach ‘em quick. There are important people down here.”

He said the common misconceptions and stereotypes are that all homeless people are all drug addicts or drunks.

“They could have just lost their job. Or one guy I met, his family died in a car crash. Who wouldn’t lose it after that? I’m surprised he held it together at all,” Jack said while sweeping trash off a curb in East Village.

Jack makes a little more than minimum wage cleaning up the downtown area with other volunteers from the Alpha Project’s bridge shelter in Barrio Logan. He said he would much rather have a paying job even if it’s just picking up trash, than to get a government assistance check of some kind.

Growing up in the foster care system gave Jack a unique perspective on morality and materialism. He lived in over 30 homes and institutions, he said, during his growing up years. He was primarily raised by a couple that had 26 children over the years. His mother was a “long-haired, old school, ‘Aunt Bea type’ of woman,” Jack said. Her husband, his foster father, was an evangelist preacher with a taste for “other women.” Disgusted with his father’s hypocrisy, he instead focused on the values his mother instilled in them. He and his two brothers never had much, but they were taught to always share what they did have.

“I found out the more I help people, the more help I get,” he said.

Two years ago his mother died and Jack decided to move to the West Coast. He is committed to keeping her legacy alive. “Having faith in something: that’s what keeps me strong. I’m not weak-minded,” he added.

Jack is in the temporary bridge shelter in Barrio Logan because he tried living in the brick-and-mortar shelters but found the system didn’t give him a path out of homelessness. He felt certain residents were treated with a special status depending on who their friends were on the staff.

“Father Joe’s, they’re not Christian,” Jack said. “They’ve got favoritism, they’ve got people who’ve been there forever, like it’s their permanent home, and there’s people on the street who really want to work their way into housing and a job.”

When Jack gets himself into stable housing he hopes to get more involved in outreach to help other homeless individuals get off the street for good.