#19: Yesterday was Jake's 200th Drug Free Day.

It's been almost a year for Trish and a few months less for AJ.

After a series of rather sobering stories, I wanted to remind us all that my friends’ situations are always in flux; their lives are as complex, multi-dimensional, and challenging as anybody’s; every day there are successes as well as setbacks.

Not only has Jake been opioid-free on Suboxone for seven months, but he’s started to pick up some work. He and Suzanne could still use a better place to live than a tent by the tracks, but they have some possibilities.

Trish and A.J.^⁠¹ have been drug-free for almost a year, and Trish just found work as a home health aide. This involved going to the Clinic for her methadone, getting a ride to either the police station or DMV [I’m not clear which] to get a temporary 30-day ID, and then getting another ride 20 miles to the employment office so they could meet the supervisor in-person before assigning her a patient. All by 10 o’clock in the morning. After waking up at 5 am in a tent. But she did it and had her first four-hour shift yesterday. She really liked the woman, and it sounds like the feeling was mutual.

A while back, I wrote about a guy named Bruce who took the $10 I gave him for Suboxone and went right across the street to get “something” from a guy I knew was a street dealer. Bruce has now been successfully on methadone for a month and still has his new part-time job. The people he’s working for are really supportive and told me, to my surprise, he has a good sense of humor. I do see him walking down the street in the morning with his heavy-duty sleeping bag, but he hopes to be able to find something better soon.

Melissa and Isaiah are still living in their tent, which has been particularly hard because Melissa has a bad case of bronchitis. But occasionally, they get a room at a motel with another couple (although their dog Jupiter takes up most of their bed.) Melissa just got antibiotics at the ER and has applied for work at one of the ski areas for the winter. Jupiter can go with them because he’s a certified rescue dog.

The young woman I called Beth, whom I first saw reading a book at the bridge near the Co-op, happily told me a week or so ago that a place finally opened up for her at the shelter and she’s still on track to get re-licensed as a nurse. Next time, I’ll remember to ask what she’s reading these days.

One of the many preconceptions about my friends who live on the street by day and wherever they can by night is that they live static, one-dimensional lives, revolving mainly around survival. This is undoubtedly true for some of them some of the time but not necessarily about all of them all of the time.

Most everyone I meet is really trying—to get the next meal, a safe place to sleep, a job, a way to visit their children who live miles away with family or foster parents. [A whole other topic]. Or, yes, to get free of addiction.

If they don’t have jobs, the reasons are rarely because they are lazy. It’s because they don’t have reliable transportation; or a place to get clean before work, or the right clothes for the job (like the nurse’s shoes that Trish now needs). Many don’t have IDs which makes all the above more difficult and is another a big issue I’d never thought of before. The shelter and drop-in center can help with many of these things but can’t always provide what my friends need when they need it.

Yet, in spite of these challenges there are often positive steps as well as setbacks. Often, they just need a little help.

1. Trish gave me permission to use their real names because she wants people to know what it’s like “out there.” All the others, except for Melvin are pseudonyms.