Alabama, 49

'Not Just a Stereotype'

“We moved from our home in Colorado. It was a casino town, and Covid shut down all the casinos. So, everyone in town was pretty much out of a job all of a sudden. I’ve worked construction most of my life, but I can’t do heavy lifting and stuff because I’ve got bad rotator cuffs in my shoulders, and I have several mental health issues that make it really hard for me to hold down a job.

Last year there was this collective, and I met and lived with a lot of artists who helped me get in touch with my creative side. My mom was a really creative artist also. And, so, that’s when I decided what I wanted to do going into my future is create of podcast of just me talking about some of the art I come up with. I try out a lot of experiments and stuff and I just have a lot of interesting stories to tell from it. I’ve lived a colorful life. Clothing and jewelry are my biggest stuff. I like to upcycle things, take things that have been discarded or are second hand and turn them into new things, turn them into something more fun.

I do a lot of trading and bartering, so, I don’t deal with much cash. And I do get food stamps, but that’s pretty much it. I like to go around neighborhoods where people put stuff out on the curbs. I find a lot of things that either need fixing or rebuilding that are still in good condition and then bring them out here and sell them.

There’s a wide variety of people here. I talk to all of them because I don’t judge, and I’m an advocate for them. A lot of these people that do drugs out here didn’t start off that way. Sometimes, being homeless is so much pressure on people that they end up doing drugs. They’re my family, all these people out here. I care about all of them. They have my back if I need some help.

I’m not ashamed of who I am. I want people to see who I really am, that I’m not just a stereotype, that I’m going to leave a trashy mess. I’m not strung out on drugs. I’m not going to steal from them. If they look at me and get to know me a little bit, they’ll probably like me.”

Photograph and story documented by Stephen Speckman.