Portland observer., November 24, 2004, Page 6, Image 6

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Page A6
November 24. 2004
H om elessr» <"= Holidays
continued
from Front
photos by M ichael R ibenstebn /
T he P orti . and O bserver
orphans, rebels and runaways, prostitutes,
travelers and countless other survivors of
the street.
Under the bridge
Robert Woolf, 33, is a Portland native.
Somewhat set up for a troubled life, Woolf
dropped out o f school in the fifth grade,
and started slamming methamphetamines
at age 12. Today, he can’t say what his
future holds.
“I’m trying to get my life together,” said
a hyper and twitchy Woolf, who had just
shot up meth under an overpass hangout
in southeast Portland. “T here’s no reason
I can ’ t get a job, but I’ve been li vi ng on the
streets for so long, I don’t think I can do
it.”
W oolf spent most o f his adolescence
locked up for petty theft and drug charges.
He is currently off probation and parole for
the first time since he was a kid.
“My life is terrible. I might die soon from
drugs or someone might kill he,” he said.
W oolf says he has felt more hopeless
and alone since his father passed away
last month.
“My people are dying,” W oolf said. He
has lost his mother, brother and father.
W ithout family to fall back on, he says
his criminal record and drug addiction
have kept him from getting the help he
needs to change his life.
By the grace of God
Sandy G olding had the illusion o f a
stable life. She w orked as a w aitress and
ow ned a hom e w ith her husband in
E stacada, Or. She had been raised in a
C hristian hom e by her father, a deacon
and her m other, a w orship leader. But
for the first tim e in her life, G olding was
in serious trouble. H er crack and heroin
addiction had caught up w ith her.
“I was a functioning addict,” she said.
“At 3 9 ,1 had the cops at my door.”
Golding served time in jail for posses­
sion of drugs, growing marijuana and steal­
ing electricity.
“My life had went downhill. I needed a
different life,” she said.
Golding is now clean and working to­
ward a new, independent future through
Union Gospel M ission’s LifeChange, a
Denise Middleton, a recruitment specialist at Union Gospel Mission, focuses on her new life after surviving a traumatic past.
includes mentoring homeless youth and
rebuilding her marriage. Her husband,
whom she recently reunited with after
three years o f separation, also enrolled in
a treatment facility.
“It’s kind o f ironic because my goals
were always to help other people and I
knew I couldn’t do it until 1 got my life
straightened out,” she said.
Burning bridges, crossing barriers
D enise M iddleton, a
recruitm ent specialist at
U nion G ospel M ission,
said she was the picture
o f a ju n k ie when she
cam e to the m ission in
1996.
“I came from a family
of addicts. My addiction
started when I was nine
years old. My parents
would use alcohol to se­
duce
m e ,"
sa id
Middleton, 45.
Drinking gave way to
opiates and the pills grew
into a heroin addiction at
26 years old.
‘T h at was my fix-all,”
Middleton said.
“I looked like a normal
drug addict. I w as in
prison for manufacturing
meth. I was first arrested
at 18 for receiving stolen
property,” she said.
M iddleton’s son was
tak en aw ay a fte r his
school reported that he
was stabbed by one of
his m o th er’s needles.
Middleton went to jail and
her husband, a diabetic
Sandy Golding, a food service director at Union
heroin user, died from his
Gospel Mission, tells her painful story o f addiction
addiction.
and homelessness before the kitchen is flooded by
“I’d been through a
hungry men and women waiting outside.
series o f traum atic drug
experiences up until I
faith-based, privately funded, residential
was 37 ,” she said. “(A uthorities) told
program that addresses issues causing
me to get clean and I said ‘W hat for? My
homelessness and addiction.
son
is gone, my husband is gone. I’ll
“W hat w e’re looking for is not just a
give
you U A s but th e y ’re not going to
clean U A (urine analysis). We want people
be
c
lea
n .’”
to deal with the root causes o f their situ­
M
iddleton
said that at her worst, she
ations," said Stacy Keon, a spokeswoman
panhandled
by
freeways in Seattle, pros­
for Union Gospel Mission.
tituted
and
stole
from her family and chil­
A sa senior m em ber o f the LifeChange
dren.
com m unity, G olding has w orked the
“I did whatever it took. I burned every
s te p s by a t te n d in g c l a s s e s fo r
bridge I could,” she says.
codependence and anger m anagem ent,
But Middleton w ouldprefernottodw ell
received professional training through
on
her past when she says today, her life
the m issio n 's hunger relief com ponent
is
filled
with hope.
as the food service d irector and co n tin ­
"I
don’t
want to give glory to the past
ues to develop skills w hich will set her
b
ec
au
se
i
t
’s a b o u t th e n e w ,” said
up for a healthy future
Middleton,
who
is remarried, has a blended
“The hardest part is when you have to
family
o
f
seven
children and five grand­
really dig into yourself and look at your
children
and
has
been a recovered addict
issues,” Golding said. “M ine was that I
was tired o f the life I was living; using for more than six year.
“Now I know I can help others and walk
everyday, stealing from jobs, writing bad
through
the program with them. When
checks."
you're
out
there drugging and drinking,
Golding is now building a future that
1
you don’t know how to have fun, how to
sit and talk, how to have a relationship,”
Middleton said, who is exceptionally com ­
posed.
She credits her faith and LifeChange
with her success.
“You need Jesus to heal. When you
learn to love yourself the way Jesus loves
you, you don’t need to go to the dope man
on the com er for your fi x. You can go to the
cross for your fix,” she said.
For her daughter
Jenna was one of O regon’s estimated
20,682 homeless children before she and
her Mom joined Shepherd’s Door, a re­
covery facility for homeless women and
children.
A local rise in homeless children is part
of a national demographic shift in the
place.
“I got into acar accident and my daugh­
ter broke her back and almost died,” said
Erika. She had fallen asleep at the wheel
after using heroin.
Visibly tattooed and hardened from a
rough life, Erika says today she is learning
about boundaries and working through
her pain.
Regarding her past, Erika recalls, “It got
bad. I know all drugs make you numb but
heroin makes you so numb.”
She says she regrets putting her daugh­
ter in dangerous situations. Jenna was
often with Erika when she shoplifted food
or other goods to sell for drugs. Erika and
Jenna sometimes slept in their car or in the
woods.
“I was scared my Mom would get beat
up by the cops,” said Jenna, a Parkrose
the entire 1-5 corridor, from Canada to
California, attractive to people experienc­
ing homelessness, experts say. But for all
the notable institutions helping to feed,
shelter and com fort the homeless, accord­
ing to Gray, Portland needs to access its
values.
“Is it fair that w orking fam ilies c a n ’t
keep up w ith the rent? Is it right that
elderly and disabled folks have to m ove
hours aw ay from th eir social services so
they can afford housing? Is it m oral to
shuffle tired, cold people on the street
from one part o f the city to an o th er?”
she asks. “I really think we are a city and
a county w ith strong values and co m ­
passion. W e d o n ’t like seeing people
suffering b ut we have to be proactive if
w e’re going to en d — not ju st hide—
w hat we d o n ’t like seeing.”
Bruce Elkington, 50, clutches a cigarette butt with his crudely-dressed, wounded hand.
homeless population.
In 2001, a survey o f homelessness in 27
cities found that children under the age of
18 accounted for 25.3 percent o f the urban
homeless population, reported by the U.S.
Conference o f Mayors.
“However, in other cities and espe­
cially in rural areas, the numbers o f chil­
dren experiencing homelessness is much
higher," said Gray.
The Urban Institute reported in 2000
that on a national level, approximately 39
percent o f the homeless population is
children.
Thirteen-year-old Jenna and her mom,
Erika E „ came to Shepherd’s Door 17
months ago, to escape life on the street.
Erika says rebuilding her relationship
with her daughter is one of her goals while
she's at Shepherd’s Door. Jenna was the
reason she began recovery in the first
Middle School student.
“She has seen me use,” said Erika, tear­
fully.
Erika has been clean from drugs for
three years and she and her daughter are
setting goals together.
Jenna says she looks forward to “living
in a nice home and being healthy and
having a health family.”
Erika has pledged to make that happen
for herself and her daughter.
“I’m hoping to become more healthy,”
Erika said. “I want to create a strong,
healthy relationship with my daughter. I
want to have a jo b where I can help women
w ho are going through w hat I w ent
through.”
A city’s values on trial
Mild weather, vibrant, livable cities and
efficient transportation make Portland and
G ra y c o m m e n d s re c e n t s u p p o rt
M ayor Vera Katz and Com m issioner Erik
Sten lent to affordable housing in the
city budget.
N ationally, groups such as the re­
cently-form ed H ousing A lliance and the
Regional Blue Ribbon C om m ittee on
H ousing R esource D evelopm ent are
w orking on creative housing solutions
such as offering financial incentives to
encourage the developm ent o f affo rd ­
able housing.
L o c a lly , G ray say s, “T h e R ig h t T o
S lee p ca m p a ig n , o f w h ich S iste rs O f
T h e R oad is a p art o f, w ill c o n tin u e to
fig h t fo r the freed o m o f p eo p le c u r ­
ren tly w ith o u t h o u sin g o r o th e r v i­
ab le o p tio n s , to sle e p o u tsid e p e a c e ­
fu lly an d sa fe ly w ith o u t u n w arra n te d
in te rv e n tio n from p o lice o r o th e r p u b ­
lic sa fe ty o f fic ia ls .”