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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 14, 2014)
BY JAKE THOMAS to the point where h e lost focus of what was around him. eone has a roof over his head, medical care No longer able to hold down a job, Leone and some money in his pocket Having all became homeless. During this time, he recalls this makes him “jealous of himself.” That’s walking around screaming at the voices until he because things weren’t always so gravy for Leone, would collapse from exhaustion. He tried to avoid who doesn’t want his full name used for this people, who might think he was talking to them. article. Once he remembers gathering enough bottles and “When you hear voices, and you try to figure cans for their deposits and ordering a hamburger out who’s talking, it makes it hard to communicate at a McDonald’s. As he waited for his meal, the with people,” explains Leone, 61, who spent two voices flared up. Leone began screaming back at decades living on the streets and “yelling at the them and left without his hamburger. wind.” j “It was an actual war to me,” recalls Leone. Leone began hearing voices decades ago while Some nights, Leone came back to his camp doing a repair job at a house. They were debating exhausted from batfling the voices only to find his whether they should do “this,” whatever “this” 4 gear had been tossed. He spent the night walking was. They were also debating whether Lebhe and shaking in the cold. Some days, his back could hear them or n o t Eventually the voices ached so bad he would have to lay down for a day figured out that Leone could hear them and that’s or two. when his life changed. The voices told him to kill Leone’s life changed about four years ago (he himself and kill others and “a lot in between,” he says. The voices would scream and curse at Leone See CHECKS, page 4 STAFF W R ITER ■ Feds serve warrant on local payee service BY JAKE THOMAS STAFF W RITER ' -..S . • • • .. • early 1,000 disabled and low-income clients of Safety Net of Oregon are wondering how they will receive disability benefits now that the company is under federal investigation. The nonprofit organization, which provides money-management services to individuals receiving federal disability benefits, was served with a federal search warrant on Thursday March 6. Carla Meredith, resident agent in charge for the Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, told Street Roots that the warrant was based on allegations that Safety Net was mismanaging clients’ funds. Speaking outside of the nonprofit organization’s office on Morrison Street in inner Southeast Portland, , Meredith said Safety Net managed the funds for nearly 1,000 people ■ See WARRANT, page 5 Inside The Case of Conrad Cooper Film turns lens on middle-class homelessness Page 7 Out o f hiding Vendor profile: Physician and film m aker Delaney Ruston tackles mental health worldwide Harry Richards brings a friendly face to Southwest Portland Page 8 Page 6
