Cup o’ Joe
Born and raised in Santa Barbara, California, Joe became involved in neighborhood gang life from a young age. As a result of this experience and California’s stern three strikes sentencing law, he was incarcerated for thirty years in a state prison known for its brutal conditions and violent race-related rivalries. However, all those years of turmoil in Joe’s past came as a shock to me.
When I met Joe, he was the Vice Chair of Homeless Health Care Los Angeles (HHCLA)’s Client Advisory Board (CAB). Immediately, I was struck by his lighthearted personality. I quickly learned that Joe’s sense of humor emerged in all conversations he held. His quips would be frequent daily reminders of his characteristic wit and jovial nature.
By this point, Joe was on parole, already out of prison for a few years. Following his release, he — like many others in similar states of false freedom, rid of the physical confines of a cell but trapped by the clinging shackles of the institution of prison — found himself without a place to go and without job opportunities as a felon on parole. He was homeless.
After months of sleeping on sidewalks or in the shelter of churches in Los Angeles’s Historic Filipinotown, Joe was found by HHCLA social workers. By some inexplicable force, spiritual or otherwise, Joe had chosen to sleep on a sidewalk corner directly across the street from HHCLA. His cardboard bed could be seen through the organization’s windows.
I got to know Joe while working with him and other members of the CAB on an initiative to register members of the HHCLA community to vote. It was October 2016 and not only was the presidency at stake, but also Proposition HHH, a Los Angeles County proposition to increase funding for subsidized housing for low-income and homeless LA residents. Within a few weeks, we registered around fifty community members around Downtown LA and Skid Row. Joe worked hard. He was punctual and reliable, and his commitment to the project proved him deserving of ascending to Chair of the CAB once the previous Chair, LeAndrae Coates, stepped down partway through the project.
Meanwhile, Joe was in the final stages of finding housing with assistance from his HHCLA case managers, Santos and Kristy. For two months, I talked with him about how he envisioned using his space once he got it, from housing a respectable flat-screen television he’s long admired, to making cups of coffee in his own personal kitchen.
Two weeks before my time at HHCLA ended, Joe walked in with a cup of coffee in hand and the biggest grin on his face. He had just moved into his new place. Joe didn’t yet have a bed, or a couch, or his beloved flat-screen television, but he had a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen. And he had his coffee.
