CW is a quiet, steady man, a gentleman who is always polite, well-kept and a joy to have around the Street Roots office. One day last summer, he came in with a badly bruised and swollen face after being viciously attacked while he slept. For months afterward, he looked exhausted and gaunt. Lately there’s been a change in him. He seems well rested and at peace. After a year on the streets, he finally has a bed inside.
“I’ve been on four or five different waiting lists for five months now, and finally over at TPI (Transition Projects) they said that I got into the Clark Center (on Southeast Martin Luther King Blvd). I was still No. 58 on the list, but they said I’d been on the list long enough and it was time to get me off the street. And it’s like an oasis in the middle of the desert. After a year, I can sleep with both eyes closed, which is something I haven’t done for a long time."
CW said he has had a hard time sleeping since his attack this past fall.
“It was about 6:30 in the morning, and my sleeping bag got jerked right off my head, and a guy just hammered me with a whiskey bottle. He hit me three times, it broke on the third time. He looked shocked I wasn’t knocked out. I was still trying to get up, still trying to resist, then he grabbed me by the throat and threw me back down on the ground. He was choking me out, but he didn’t grab me the right way, I was still getting air, and when he switched from the bottle to the choking, his head got closer to mine, and I grabbed him by his ears and pulled his head right into my chest and just held him, and he kept saying, 'Let me go, let me go,’ and I said, ‘No way, no way.’ He said, ‘I’ll leave, just let me go,’ and I still didn’t believe him, so I held him down for another couple minutes. And finally I let him go and he did take off, but he got my wallet in the struggle, so I had to replace all my ID and all my important stuff.”
He had been sleeping against a brick wall in the Pearl District, where he thought he would be safe, when the attack occurred.
“You’re not safe anywhere,” he said. “You try and stay away from these people, but anywhere you go, they’re going to find you. There’s no place that’s safe on the street.”
Compared to that, the Clark Center is like heaven, CW said.
“I sleep in a room with about 90 people. I’ve got a bottom bunk, and I’ve got my own locker I can keep all my stuff in there so I don’t have to carry it around all day. It’s a little piece of heaven on earth, just to get off the street. Since I’ve been there I’ve slept like a log, I’ve slept more than I’ve slept for a long time. I have energy again; I feel like a new man. You can stay there 24 hours a day. You can sleep all day if you need to. But they have a 10 o’clock curfew at night. It’s a clean and sober building, no alcohol or drugs.”
CW said he’s thrilled to get off the streets but will continue to sell Street Roots every Sunday outside Central Lutheran Church at Northeast 21st Avenue and Broadway.
“The people are wonderful there,” he said. “They seem so happy to see me. I’m making new friends. Street Roots has been huge for me.”
He’ll be allowed to stay at the Clark Center for four months, but he can get an extension after that if necessary.
“I’m looking for something with a door that locks. I think God will take care of it. When it’s time, I will be sent in the right direction.”
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Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots