Note to Reader: What you are about to read is one homeless man’s account of why he is homeless. This individual consented to the interview and could refuse to answer any question. This is his story; take it as you will.
For his first 38 years, Salvador Sedano led a normal life.
“I had a wife, a child and a good job,” he began as he sat on some metal stairsteps facing the Olympia Free Wall. “I had no idea that I would someday become homeless.”
Sedano was born and raised in Oakland, California, Sedano by parents who were deaf and who made sure he received a good start in life.
“I got a good high school education, “ he continued.
“I was raised in the deaf community, and I got to know it very, very well, and it was easy for me to continue to work in and with that community after high school.”
For a little over the next two decades, he worked as an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter with non-profits, hospitals and schools in facilitating communication between individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and people who can hear.
“I did it for a long time; the work was good; the pay was fine; I had no complaints,” continued Sedano.
But his sense of normalcy ended about a decade ago when a truck collided with the bus Sedano was riding in downtown Seattle.
“I suffered some nerve damage, and I wasn’t the same as I was before,” he explained. “That, and the painkillers I took for my pain began to get a hold of me.”
He went on to say that he also began to use marijuana and, at times, methamphetamine. His use eventually cost him his job, his marriage, and his child, whom he has not seen in over nine years.
“I began to use drugs because I was in pain and had nothing to do,” explained Sedano.
“I made one unforgivable mistake after another, and it cost me dearly; my life imploded,” he continued without further elaboration.
After being homeless and moving around from one shelter to another in Seattle for about five years, he moved to Olympia.
“It was tough up there always having to ask for free stuff,” he said, “and I came here to Olympia because I heard that things were better, that the city really provided a lot,” he said.
He added that he gets his meals and clothing at the Union Gospel Mission and the Salvation Army, but added that “when I deal with the people from the city, I don’t think most of them know what to make of me.”
As he began to pack up his belongings, he said he didn’t know what he wanted to do.
“I just don’t know; I just can’t figure it out,” he said as he walked away.
“Nothing seems to work for me.”
JM Simpson - jm@theJOLTnews.com - is a veteran photojournalist who lives in Lacey.
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FordPrefect
“I came here to Olympia because I heard that things were better, that the city really provided a lot.”
- Salvador Sedano
“If you build it, they will come.”
- mysterious, whispering voice in a corn field
Tuesday, September 26, 2023 Report this
waltjorgensen
Interesting that the first and sole comment so far on this article refers us to the arguably quippy "“If you build it, they will come.” I don't think that FordPrefect heard this in a corn field as a "mysterious, whispering voice" or otherwise. I think he saw the movie "Field of Dreams."
As is so often the case, many people, when they express concern about the homelessness problem, and after you initially mistake their concern for compassion for the homeless, you discover that they just want them swept out of the way. The problem they've referred to is that the homeless are defacing their living-scape and wasting their tax money.
I take a different view.
Walter R. Jorgensen
Tumwater, WA
waltjorgensen@comcast.net
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -- Aristotle
“Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.” -- Joe Biden
“We are conditioned to believe, not to understand.” -- Marcelina Cravat
“It’s easier to fool people than it is to convince them that they have been fooled.” -- Mark Twain
"With Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan and Ralph Nader included in our mix of humanity, how could we have gone so wrong?" -- Walt Jorgensen
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ― Buckminster Fuller
Tuesday, September 26, 2023 Report this
JulesJames
Mr. Jorgensen: I respectfully disagree. But I cannot be as flowery as Aristotle, Mark Twain or Horace Mann. Society's faith-based social services safety net for transients has been overwhelmed. Government "charity" has taken over -- either directly or by funding non-profits. And municipal governments up and down the Puget Sound have developed an arrogance of power problem. They believe they can solve individual dilemmas -- if given enough resources by the taxpayer. The opposite is true. Government handouts are enslaving these vulnerable populations to subsistence existences within lawless environments. Government inaction in the face of flagrant criminal behavior -- camping on public land, pushing stolen shopping carts on city streets for starters -- only encourages these people to scavenge dumpsters, alleys, then back yards, mail boxes, parked cars and retail stores. No free society will ever eliminate transients. But we can recognize "move along or go to jail" is the only reliable road to recovery and re-entry into productive society.
Wednesday, September 27, 2023 Report this