This is the second installment in a series following Street Roots vendors Max McEntire and Deanna Handley as they seek stability and a place to call home. The first told the story of how Deanna secured housing, but the rules prohibited Max from living there. The following essay is in the words of Max McEntire, as told to reporter Emma Nathanson.
Going inside and getting housing is a blessing. We started looking for a place for me a few months ago and Serena (a caseworker with the housing program JOIN) hooked me up with Central City Concern. They put me in the Henry Building. So I’m inside, I got my TV and crockpot.
Deanna, my ex-partner, got her apartment, and we’re both off the street. We’re not together right now – she wanted to be separated. Deanna and I are both alphas. That doesn’t mix. I’m happy for her. I still love her. I’m dragging my feet on the divorce, but I don’t think she’ll change her mind. Whatever makes her happy is what I’ll do.
Deanna and I might not be together right now, but neither one of us is on the sidewalk anymore. I like it inside, and I’m so warm. I was cold out in the tent. It’s an adjustment, and I’ve had to get adjusted to it. I have to get used to doing the laundry here and microwaving my own food until I get some pots, pans and utensils.
From living in a tent to having a place, it takes a lot of getting used to. I’ve got a bed now instead of an army cot. I’m only using one blanket instead of three layers of blankets. So, it’s going to take some time, but I’ll get a schedule going again.
It’s a nice deal. I’ve got three months where I don’t have to pay any rent, and they’re going to help me get a job. They did my resume for me last week. It’s given me more time to go to the doctor, take care of my personal stuff. Nobody’s even been in my room. They only come by if they have notices. There was a COVID scare in the building, and they tested us two weeks in a row. I came back negative both times. But if it’s not something important, they don’t bother you, so I stay pretty much to myself.
The most difficult step in getting housing was finding someone to help me. I went to three or four places when Deanna and I were in the C3PO camp. They’d take the application, and we’d never hear from them again. Serena has been a gift from God because she got us both off the street in the time it takes most people just to get their foot in the door. She’s on my Christmas list for the rest of her life, whether she likes it or not.
For the long term, I’m not sure how this is going to work. Nick (a caseworker with CCC) is talking to me about getting a two-month extension on my free rent and CCC is trying to help me find work, but until I can get a birth certificate from Texas, then I can’t get an ID. I’ve applied three different times for a birth certificate and can’t seem to get an answer or response. So until I get an ID, I’m held up on finding work. I’m worried that pretty soon these guys here are going to get tired of giving me free rent, and I will wind up on the sidewalk again.
If I can get some kind of employment, regardless of what it is, I can help. As for jobs, I’m looking for anything and everything. I’m 60, and if there’s a trade I haven’t had my hands in, I don’t know which one it is. If I don’t know it already, I can learn it quickly. I’m one of those people.
Securing veterans benefits is another thing that would help.
I served on the USS Bainbridge in San Diego. While I was there, my wife and son died, my dad died. I was falling apart so I requested a discharge, and they gave me a bad discharge. They told me if I waited under the admin board, I would get an honorable discharge, but I ended up with an other-than-honorable discharge instead. So I haven’t had any benefits since I got out. Once we get the discharge upgraded, I’ll be eligible for a lot more. That’ll help a lot.
Securing veterans benefits has been an ongoing process for years. Six years ago when I was in Portland and homeless, I had a guy working on it, but my work ran out and I just couldn’t sit dead. That was the year of those two big blizzards and the night that the second one hit, I said, “That’s it, I’m not staying through another one!” I had stayed there in the first one. The snow was 8 inches high when I unzipped my tent that day. When they said another one that was worse was coming in, I took my severance pay, got on the bus and went to Nevada where I worked for a while.
I always gravitate back to Portland because it’s one of my favorite cities in the United States. I like the atmosphere, just that you can talk to people. You can pretty much do whatever you want to do in any field, and you can find work if you go out and look for it. I came to Portland for the first time in 1985. I fell in love with it then. Everything about the city I like. There are some things that get overlooked, but it is what it is. It’s changed quite a bit and there are a few more problems that weren’t there then, but you can’t expect everything to be the same all the time.
I think the leniency that Portland has towards drugs is a bad mistake, but I am very anti-drug. The homelessness and the laxness of Portland toward drugs go hand in hand and make each other worse. In this state, you’re not going to eliminate homelessness if you don’t eliminate the drugs. This is just a personal opinion. The reason I’m giving my opinion is because I was addicted to cocaine and speed for 11 years, and I know what it did to my life. I won’t mess with any of it now. Of course, there are reasons people do drugs. They’re coping with things. It’s an escape from reality.
I don’t understand how I could be straight and narrow for so many years and then still get looked down on because of what I did in 2003.
A criminal record is a real barrier for people who are trying to get housing, and I’ve got two felony convictions. If I just went in without my past as a veteran, or without JOIN, or without any other backup, I wouldn’t be able to get into housing. People don’t want me in there. It doesn’t matter that I got off parole in 2010. They see armed robbery and drug possession and they say, “No. We don’t want you in the building.”
Central City Concern and JOIN are really gracious about that and they tend to work with people with criminal records. Because yes, criminal history does hurt people. And I don’t understand how I could be straight and narrow for so many years and then still get looked down on because of what I did in 2003, which was the date of my last conviction. This is 2021 now, 18 years later. But I’ve gone to apply for a job and had people literally take my application and put it in the trash can when I tell them that I’ve had convictions. I’ve had people do that in front of me.
Criminal history makes a difference. It makes a difference in getting work. It makes a difference in getting a place to live. It makes a difference even in getting a bank account. They ask you to your face, “Is this money going to be clean? Where are you getting your income from?” When I answer them that it’s all clean, they respond with, “Are you sure? Will you submit to a drug test?” I respond, “Hey, of course I will.” And then I never hear from them again.
I’ve been thinking about what to do about it: Let’s start an organization where people have day labor just for ex-convicts. Homeless people also need that kind of program. You know how many smart people are out there, living in tents, sleeping in doorways? Who, if they actually had a chance, would clean up and try to go to work? That’s what Street Roots has done for me. It’s given me an income for the last two years.
I’m pretty much by myself now. I go out and sell my papers, live off of what I make and go on day to day. At my age, I have to start having some extra help. Yes, I need help from other people, so I am not too big to ask.
I think that’s why some people stay on the street. They feel embarrassed when asking for help. Also, it takes so long to get things done and nobody wants to wait. They want to go into the office, ask to get a place, and then move in that day. It doesn’t work that way. You just have to bide your time. And stay on top of it, check in with the people that are helping. If you don’t stay on top of it, you can get lost in the paper shuffle. Make a nuisance of yourself. I’m serious. Throughout this pandemic, I made a nuisance of myself.
Six years ago, I was on the list for Section 8 housing. I went into the desk every day asking, but they’d just look at me standing in line and say, “Nothing yet, McEntire.” I once went from number 185 to 215 in one week. There are people that put you off, and you do get lost. But the truth of the matter is, you make enough nuisance of yourself, they’re going to put you in a place so you quit bothering them. They get tired of seeing the same face over and over again and start saying, “Let’s get him in.”
Now, I’m just going to go forward. I look out my window when I’m watching TV and I watch these guys sleeping in the doorways, and I want to run down there and give them all my extra blankets. But I have to be realistic about it. I have to keep the stuff I got in case something happens again.
I’m not going back to the sidewalk. I’ve already made up my mind. I gave my tent away — that’s how set I am on not going back to the sidewalk. And I’m not going to be the one to fall back down again. I took care of people over this last year. I’ve ignored my own stuff, and now it’s time for Max to worry about Max. That’s what I’m going to do.