After being in and out of homelessness since age 26, Justin Harris finally had some steady housing in Portland through Transition Projects. But when his brother Bryan left their hometown in the Yakima Valley to join him, he moved back to the streets.
“I would’ve been staying inside and my brother would’ve been on the street,” Justin said. “I can’t do that. A lot of people don’t really understand that, but it seems pretty cut and dry to me.”
Justin and Bryan haven’t always been together. When Justin was 20, he was ready to leave his tiny hometown in Washington State, but he had one interview left at a pizza place.
“I told my dad if I didn’t get the job, I’m going to join the army. And then I didn’t get the job, so I joined the Army.”
He was stationed in El Paso, Texas, and went overseas twice, to Qatar and Kuwait, working as a mechanic for the Patriot air and missile defense systems. He was in the army for five years, one month and 10 days.
“I counted it all the way down from two years, day by day.”
Justin says he did have some good times in the army, but he was eager to be done. He says his time in the military helped him grow up experiencing and seeing things he didn’t have the opportunity to in his hometown.
“I traveled the world and did a lot of things I couldn’t do — and I excelled.”
When he returned, he attended Yakima Valley Community College, paid for by the GI bill. However, his grades weren’t high enough for his funding to continue. He moved to North Carolina to live with an army friend, and then to Iowa to reconnect with an old girlfriend. When that didn’t work out, he ended up living on the streets.
“Basically, at that point I was just trying to figure out what I was going to do. I’d never been homeless before in my life.”
Veteran Affairs helped him get to Washington, and from there he was in and out of apartments and jobs, donating plasma to make ends meet. Since moving to Portland in March, everything from injuries to no resources for a phone has prevented Justin from finding steady work.
“Learning the city, learning the people, learning how to operate the politics of life, you know. That’s also been a huge distraction. I think that has been a good thing though, just generally that I’ve been able to experience a lot of different things, and I have a little bit more of an understanding of what life is.”
Despite the difficult times Justin and his brother Bryan have faced in Portland, he still says it is his favorite city in the world – he loves the music scene, the architecture, the art. These were things he found missing in his small hometown.
“If you don’t do sports, you were pretty much a no one. You pretty much fall into the classic small town nothing kind of life.”
Justin and Bryan hope to eventually make enough income to pursue the things they care about. They started working at Street Roots on the same day, about five weeks ago. The newspaper is an ideal ware for the arts-inclined brothers to sell – and it’s something they can believe in.
“It’s not a Rupert Murdoch kind of controlled situation. It’s not cookie-cutter, nonsense news. It’s people that actually care about what they’re doing.”
Justin finds that one of the most valuable parts of working at Street Roots are the connections he’s made with vendors, staff and customers alike, some who have become close friends.
“It’s a good thing for my brother too, so that’s a good thing for me.”
You can find Justin selling in front of the McDonald’s in front of Northeast Grand Avenue and Weidler. You can find the profile on his brother Bryan in an upcoming issue.