How BronxWorks changes lives of homeless New Yorkers
How BronxWorks changes lives
At some point in the last three years, Maria, Rodney, and Brian were all homeless. Thanks to the group BronxWorks, all now live in permanent supportive housing and attended a BronxWorks lunch in the South Bronx Friday with 50 other former homeless to celebrate their permanent housing.
A decade ago, Brian Smalley arrived in New York to visit family and never left.
"I had a successful life before but things happen."
People in the South Bronx once knew Rodney and his brother Richard Manigault — no relationship to "Earl the Goat" — as street-ballers.
"I still hoop a little bit," Rodney said,
Maria Rosa used to drink and occasionally shoot heroin.
"It became worse when I become homeless," she said.
At some point in the last three years, Maria, Rodney, and Brian were all homeless. Maria became homeless in 2013 when her apartment burned down.
"That was when everything spiraled downhill," Maria said.
Rodney became homeless after a series of mistakes in 2005.
"I blame me," Rodney said. "Only me."
Brian became homeless when a relationship ended in 2009.
"Those were like the worst days of my life because I never experienced anything like that," Brian said.
Thanks to the group BronxWorks, Maria, Rodney, and Brian now live in permanent supportive housing and attended a BronxWorks lunch in the South Bronx Friday with 50 other former homeless to celebrate their permanent housing.
Rodney, Brian, and Maria all confessed to retaining some of the habits they developed sleeping outdoors.
"I mean, you're sleeping with one eye open. You're sleeping just sitting up," Brian said. "You're always over-alert for things that are not even there."
They also expressed some nostalgia for the community on the streets many of the friends they made there will never leave.
"No, they're still there," Brian said.
Since 2005, street homelessness in the Bronx has declined by 80 percent.
"They look like you some, like a plague," Rosa said, "like you're worthless, like you're nobody."
"They look at us like garbage," Brian said.
He plans to get a pet. Rodney wants to just enjoy his life. And Maria hopes to spend more time with her grandchildren. She has been sober for 37 months. All of them — now in their 50s and 60s — are looking for work and say they want to keep their apartments.