Doug, 50

'Young at Heart'

"I was born in Utah, right here in Salt Lake City. I feel like I’m 35. I still have that mentality, young at heart. For being homeless, I’m pretty fit, pretty healthy. I eat well. I try to stay away from the drugs and stuff. But it’s hard out here.

I got caught in an abandoned house that no one had lived in since 2019. But the owner still had property in the house. So, they got me for burglary of a dwelling and not just criminal trespass. It was during winter last year. I got in because of the weather, stayed a few extra days. Cops came.

Summer of 2022 is when I became homeless. I was renting a house and the owner passed away. They decided they wanted to sell the house and not do anything with it. I received a note that said you have 15 days to vacate. On the 15th day the sheriff was at the door saying, ‘You guys have to get out.’

Kinda hard to keep a job when you’re homeless. It’s hard to wake up in the morning to an alarm when you don’t have power to plug in an alarm clock. A lot of times my phone is dead because I don’t have anywhere to charge it. They turn the power off to outlets in the park.

I hate to say it. I can understand why people are so frustrated with the homeless because things come up missing out of back yards, like tarps and tents.

Most people on the normy side of life look at us and say ‘Oh, they’re just drug addicts and don’t want to do anything with their lives.’ I’m a reformed alcoholic.

I’m a chef by trade – 25 years in Park City. Worked at Stein Eriksen Lodge for seven and a half years. I had my own catering business for six years. Thinking about doing a food truck. I have a three-year plan already made up. I can do anything, but I was thinking of something that would be fast and that people like. Like barbecue. I would start with two sandwiches, the Smoky Jane and the Smoky Joe.

I miss my boys. I miss the kids. I miss having a TV, sitting on the couch, getting up and going to the refrigerator for a cold Pepsi. All those simple luxuries in life.

If you can, if there’s any way you can help a person out, let them know there is still hope for them, there’s still love out there in the world instead of turning your backs."

Photograph and story documented by Stephen Speckman.