My name is Stella Marie Lumbreras. That’s my married name since I was 19. The date of my homeless was Dec 5, 2008. I no longer could work. I no longer could keep my property. I lost my job due to my physical illnesses, were deteriorating very rapidly. And, no matter what we did trying to stabilize them, they weren’t gonna go, so now I just deal with it. 

The Marshals were gonna come in, so I needed to leave. My father begged me to go to the state of Washington, where I was born, which was great for me, so I went there, we had a medical issue and I no longer could stay. And I told my father, I called him all the time, I went and stayed at a lady’s house, an acquaintance I knew of. I didn’t know about looking for housing or looking for a personal place of my own. And I knew my medical diseases were going more downhill, not stabilizing because if someone is not stable and making their selves stable, I’ve learned now, you can do it, even if you’re out here. And you have to make sure you eat right, you have to make sure you’re budgeting everything correctly, you have to make sure you don’t let bad influences bother you, you pray about it, and that’s it.... for more go to xxxxxx.com

Stella

I think everybody should be homeless at one time or another, then, then, they understand homelessness. Now, these people, they got good jobs and everything like that, and you ask them for some help, and they say get job, and you’re trying, but you can’t get a job, so, they don’t understand that, you know. 

I’ve lived in a car, you know, I used to have a car I lived in. I know all the churches to go to, to eat, you know, and I eat everyday, seven days a week. Oh yeah, yeah I’ve worked, yeah. Construction, security, maintenance. Yeah, I wasn’t always living in my car. I was working at the senior center, serving meals to the seniors and then I worked maintenance up there. 

The way it is, there’s two types of people, homeless. There’s the type that lose their home and they’re homeless, and then there’s other people that are homeless because they want to be homeless. Me, I wanted to be homeless, ‘cause it’s a freer life. I didn’t have no, no responsibilities or anything like that, to take care of my truck and all that.  Plus I save a lot of money. It’s a good decision for me . . . you gotta pay all the high rent for apartments and I wasn’t making that much money, you know, and I couldn’t pay $1000, at that time, maybe $800, $1,000 for apartments because I didn’t even make that much, and I decided to just live in my car instead. 

I was married about 50 years ago, but she kicked me out of the house. I had a stepdaughter, that’s all. She just thought I was messin’ around with her daughter, so that’s why she threw me out. I just live day by day, one day at a time as they say.

Ronald

I’m Fernando. I’m 30 years old. I’m from Uruguay. 9/11, 2001, and I just, that day, we came down here because you know, everybody knows what happened . . . 

I fell down in drugs, in a hole. You know, I keep clean from 2005 to now, for alcohol. I got eight years without high powered drugs. I start my meetings, AA meetings. I get a lot of progress and it’s good.

I’m not always homeless, you know? I got my apartment, but I lost my job. Just only because I think the situation in my mind, you know, let me go down, but I’m still going. I working on painting, working in the restaurants, I do so many stuff, landscaping, I take care of old lady for 14 years, like caregiver, you know, that’s the place where I lived. I think that’s it. The last time, I decided to be homeless, you know. I used to live with a family, but I didn’t feel that complete myself. I need to find the real reasons for my life and I used to use weed and I knew I can destroy that family, so I said, ‘you know guys, thank you for everything, but I need to find out what is my direction and what is my purpose in this life.’ 

Well, I’m in the street, you know, looking for a place to stay. I meet Sonja the other day in the meetings and we are staying together. We are a couple of fellows in there, camping, everybody takes care of the stuff together, don’t do drugs, don’t do alcohol. That’s the people I want close to me, you know. Last night was so funny, because we were talking about politics, religion and and the conversation was so passionate, but in a nice way. I’m laughing like I don’t know, long time ago. I feel secure in there. I’m one of the guys . . . My programs told me that’s no good, to be alone with your problems and not talking to nobody because when you share your stories with the other ones, you can feel like, that’s my story too. Letting you know that you’re not the only one in the bottom, you know. There’s so many people that got so many problems, but, i think in there that’s where you find the faith to start working together to get out. I’m glad to know those people. 

There are AA meetings in there. They give you a lot of help in there. They give you clothes, showers, you know. We got the church in there so we can get a bible class and that’s good to me because I’m so far away from God and I didn’t want to know nothing about it and I know that’s wrong because you just can’t live without God, and those places bring me back.

One of Us