Tre (rhymes with “pray” picked this same because it sounds French and because it reminds him of his job in a bar years ago--tray) says he has been homeless ten years, “give or take a few.” He says his happiest memories are from the time when he first met his wife Janees, now gone.
Tre was working part-time in a bar and doing a little of everything—from bartending to waiting tables and all the heavy work too, moving tables, mopping the floor, helping carry cases of booze and beer up and down the back stairs. There, he met Janees, who came to work there a few weeks “kinda to help out her brother when it got busy at the holidays” but who stayed there many years.
They both enjoyed working at the bar and meeting new friends and neighbors. Tre and Janees hit it off, and although he was “a lot older” she seemed to like him. He was not like “those kids in the neighborhood her age,” Tre insists. He was different and respected ladies. They were together many years and when she died, her “spirit left him too.”
Welding was his real job—he was good at it and worked full-time his whole life until 2013 when the shop he worked at closed. His brother went back to Alabama, but Tre stayed in Chicago, working at the bar and trying to take care of Janees who wound up with cancer.
The cancer eventually won. Janees lost. Tre was faced with lots of difficulties and challenges. One big change is that he had to give up the little house they had bought together. He could not get much money for it—it had no backyard at all and no garage. A little two-bedroom, it was so small most people would not even want it as a starter home.
Tre’s world seemed to collapse when his wife died, his boss had to sell the bar, and his real job as a welder ended. “It all went to hell at the same time, and all my bills came due.” He says he struggled and tried to cover everything, but nothing seemed to work. He had to sell the house and later gave up on trying to keep his car running.
For a couple months, he slept in the basement of the bar. When the bar sold, that was “just another door slamming in my face,” Tre sighed. “One thing after another, seems like, can’t win for losin’…”
Left on the streets with no car, income, family, he started experimenting with drugs—and he still loved to drink—they did a lot of drinking when they had money from working in the bar. So now he was faced with challenges in four expensive areas: booze, drugs, food, shelter.
Now Tre is dealing with life the best he can, having to negotiate prices of weed and beer with friends “who are not his first choice, not exactly top shelf.” He is not proud of “doing nothing all day long and hanging with drunks” as he explains. “I really need to get my act together.”
Tre has a pretty good handle on where to get food, clothes, snacks, and other important items. He is making good use of the system and surviving. He explains where he goes to get what… though from each example I can see he is going to the wrong places to get what he needs.
I ask him if he wants some help looking at those different “places” he goes and see if I can write down some other ideas. He says, “Knock yourself out if you think you know the right way to do it…”
I get him connected with the Night Ministry right away because they have a nurse who travels with them often and tell him what their schedule says. He has a bad sore on his leg that needs attention. Since I cannot force him to go the emergency room, I plead with him to take advantage of this other resource and he agrees to check it out.
I get him going to a better pantry—Care for Real—where I know people who will accommodate his special diet because of his diabetes and get him some food that is suitable for him. I have him look it up on his phone and then I explain their hours and services.
Homeless persons in Cook County can seek help from any pantry—they just need to get registered and “into the system” so they do not have to start from scratch every time they need to go and access food and other resources. Care for Real also has a “clothing closet” with a variety of whatever has been donated recently—he can perhaps get some clean socks, underwear, t-shirts, and a jacket. He needs a jacket very badly. Luckily, the weather is hot—he is not going to freeze out there when it is 90 plus degrees!
He wants to work. He wants to get back to “the real world…” a phrase I hear so often out on the streets. The division between the world of the non-housed and the indoor-rich is huge indeed. It is as though the homeless and the non-homeless live in different countries—or on different planets.
We will get Tre some help. Those of us who are out on the street will figure something out. He wants a job, he wants to “move up” and he wants to “live higher” than he is living right now. One more person will get a jacket. One more person will get a chicken wrap.
I don’t know what will happen to Tre. I hope great things will happen. He is a tall and strong man. He has a good phone. He is not afraid to seek help.
He does not want his picture taken. He tells his story “in case it can help somebody else who is going through all this bullshit,” he explains. He does not want me to use his real name in this story.
Just another summer day in Chicago. Hot as hell.