Street roots., July 17, 2015, Page 6, Image 6

Hindsight
by J.Mccurdy
Michael Krieger
Ya know there are days
When feeling
Flush with the aftermath
of hindsight
Isn’t all it’s cracked up to be...
To be perfectly honest
There are days
when I wish
I didn’t know now
What I didn’t know
What I didn’t know
Then...
BY LEONORA KO
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
"1W yTichael Krieger has an electrifying
l% /| connection to a popular reality
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Answers to puzzles on page 15
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S tr e e t R o o ts •
Vendors
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“You ever hear of that guy?” Michael
asks. “The Cake Boss? He’s on TLC.”
He explains: “I’m an electrician by trade.
(The Cake Boss) has a huge building where
he makes all of his pastries. He’s got a big
operation going because he owns a lot of
stores. I used to do work for him — wiring
any new equipment that came in, from a
mixing machine to heavy-duty dishwashers.
“I could wire this whole building,”
Michael says, looking around the Street
Roots office. “For instance, those outlets
that are along the wall, I would run the
pipes that go from outlet to outlet Those
are boxes behind the ceiling lights. A
bar bracket goes across the ceiling
grid.”
Michael belonged to the
electrical union in Paterson,
J
N.J., and wired residential and
f
industrial buildings. He had a
full-time job and a faithful dog
named Othello and made
$2,200-per-month
mortgage payments on his
house for nearly 10 years.
But union work slowed,
M icha^s^r^W ii^" r"
own business. The volume
wasn’t there, and he had
to short-sell his house and
walk away with nothing.
In October, he decided to
I
drive 3,600 miles to Oregon.
|
“I came straight to
Portland because my sister was
here. But then she actually moved
to Denver,” he says, “so now I’m here by
myself.”
In Oregon, Michael found work with a
temp agency to move furniture two days a
week, but the pay and sale of his truck were
not enough to keep his apartment. He was
evicted April 1.
Becoming homeless was a shock.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God. I’m actually on
the streets,’” Michael says. “But after I
slept out a couple of days, I kind of got used
to i t ”
Michael says, “‘I’ll get off eventually. It’s
just a matter of making some money.”
He works for Street
Roots now, “and
that’s good for
b me,” he says.
K Michael
jt became a
B vendor in May
|l| and says he
jji likes providing
information to
■
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J u ly 1 7 -2 3 , 2 0 1 5
the community. His morning routine is to
get to the Street Roots office early, drink
coffee and go to his spot by 8 a.m. on most
days.
To earn enough money for housing,
Michael says, “I have to get (an Oregon)
license to work as an electrician. There are
plenty of jobs for electricians. You go on
Craigslist and there are tons. I just need
the licensing; that’s all.”
“I know the practical,” he says. “Like I
could wire this whole building. But then
you’ve got to know theory and know
everything an electrical engineer needs to
know.”
Getting to the next step has been
difficult because his backpack, along with
his wallet and cellphone, was stolen.
Without identification, he has not been able
to start the process for an electrician’s
license. Without a cellphone, he could not
be contacted by the temp agency for labor
jobs.
Small steps and persistence are helping
Michael reach his goals. He is working with
Transitions Projects Inc. to front the
application fee for identification papers
from New Jersey. He applied for and got a
new “Obama phone” from a federal
program started during the Reagan
administration.
Michael is not completely alone on the
streets. He still has Othello.
“I’ve had him for eight years,” Michael
says about his dog. “He’s 9 years old
now. Sleeps next to me. Keeps me
warm. He’s calm.”
He is divided on how to care for
-
BOB
job, there is no place to keep him.
Michael muses: “I met another guy;
he’s on the streets, and he found a home
for his dog. With a backyard and
everything. Worked out.”
In the same breath, he says, “I’m just
going to find Othello a dog sitter. We’ve
been through a lot, you know, me and him.”
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