Grant

  I was called into the office of the USC Supportive Housing in January 2012 and got some distressing news.  The grant that was paying for my housing at Villa Hermosa was expiring in April.  What did that mean?  I would be losing my apartment and would have to move out.  They assured me that I would not be going back out on the street.  They told me that they would find another place for me to stay through the Columbia Housing Authority.  It seemed the grant was for only two years.  That was strange, because I knew people in the program who had lived in their place longer than two years.  

 Being on the street gave me trust issues.  I couldn't trust many people.  After all, I trusted a guy that told me I could move into a house behind Whaley Street.  That offer fell through.  I trusted the hospital to provide a warm place for me.  They kicked me out.  And now, I had trusted that I had a place of my own, and it was going away.  I kept my post office box just in case I had nowhere to go.  Good call, Walter.

 I put in my application at the Columbia Housing Authority.  There was a long waiting list, although I was told that I would be put near the top of the list, since I was in a housing program.  That was some consolation.  I just couldn't tell anybody.  No sense for more jealousy like I got getting off of the street.  This was an emergency.  And, the "little white boy" wouldn't be around anymore.  I was told of some properties that were about to be open.  I did crime report checks and then would turn down the offers.  My neighborhood was no bed of roses, but the places offered were worse.  I seriously didn't want to live in a place where the police didn't like to visit.  I did start to box up my belongings, because I might get a safe place, or I would have to get another storage locker and move all my stuff back in there.  I had a homeless friend who lived in his storage locker.  I could see me doing that too.