How many times have you passed a homeless person on the street and tried to avoid looking at them, or crossed to the other side to not have to be near them?  Did you think “Why don’t they get a job?”  Did you even wonder how they got to that place?

There are lots of reasons for homelessness.  They include job loss, drugs or alcohol use, argument with a family member who asked them to leave, eviction, incarceration, mental illness and more.

I spent a year getting to know members of the Downtown Streets Team, an organization that works to help homeless people get jobs, get transportation so they can get to work or job interviews, get supportive services to help them in this transition, and finally, to get housing.

The members wanted to share their experiences and kindly allowed me to videotape them telling their stories.  So I created a series called “This is My Story.”

When you see a homeless person do you wonder what their story is?