Road to success is paved with hope

Happy Monday! Here’s a little story about hope.

On July 5, 2006, I went to bed convinced I wouldn’t make it through the night. This was it. The end. They’d find me alone in my little cabin, stone dead with an empty whisky bottle nearby.

I drank myself into a corner. Ran off from all who loved me. In my fog that night, I reached out to someone I barely knew and asked for help.

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That next day, July 6, 2006. Don’t remember much about it. Someone picked me up at home and drove me to a recovery meeting. I spent an hour there with men I had never met, never seen, and didn't know of their existence.

What a shock to the system. Before being introduced to 12-step recovery, I was never EVER going to stop drinking. It was IMPOSSIBLE. Then I met people who had done just that.

Desperation led me to that first meeting. Hope brought me back the next day. The impossible was possible. If I allowed these folks to help me, one day I’d be the one helping others.

I clung to hope. Still do today.

We’re going to be hearing plenty soon about a homeless program called Citrus Hope. It’s based on programs in Pinellas County and the City of Tampa designed to bring homeless folks off the street, give them a safe environment, provide services to help them become self-sufficient, and send them successfully on their way.

It’s a lofty goal. 

Last Friday, a busload of Citrus County political, business, and community leaders traveled to view both programs. I had a conflict and missed the Pinellas Hope visit but met up with the bus at Tampa Hope.
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I’ll leave the details for another day. The Chronicle’s publisher, editor, and reporter Nancy Kennedy were there, so look to the newspaper for coverage. 

On April 8, the County Commission will hear a presentation from AnnMarie Briercheck, executive director of Daystar Life Center in Crystal River, and Maggie Rogers, executive director of Catholic Charities Diocese of St. Petersburg, about how the program could work here.

That’s Maggie in the top photo showing us the layout. This isn’t a homeless shelter in the traditional sense. It's a community of over 200 tents and tiny “Hope Cottages” (second photo) on less than five acres with one central building that houses case management services. Folks are fed, have access to showers and laundry, and are given a hand-up.

Our community is so ready for this.

There is much to discuss. Let’s start on the ground floor.

It sickens me when the well-to-do blame homeless folks for being homeless. How often we hear:

• “They want to live in the woods!”
• “Plenty of jobs out there, the homeless are just lazy.”
• “Nothing but drunks and drug addicts.”
• “What kind of parent does this to his kids?”​ ​​

​And more. While there may be a grain of truth to some of that, the lack of grace is sad and astounding. I don’t get it. The rain falls on us all. I didn’t pop out of the womb as a successful blogger. Especially knowing my pre-sober path, it’s simply through grace and mercy that I’m even alive, let alone a functioning member of society.

How does anyone with a beating heart conclude the less fortunate did something to deserve it? The truth is homelessness is closer than most think.

Most homeless are not drunks, druggies, or crazed out of their minds. They’re regular folks who lost a job, had a major car expense, or suffer through medical issues. Everything is more costly than it was a year ago, and those with only a few pennies in their pockets feel it much worse than others.

Hope is currency to the hopeless. It’s the open door to riches beyond measure.

So, as we begin a very important community discussion about Citrus Hope, let’s start here:

Kindness. We can handle that, right?

Have a great Monday, friends.

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