The Story of the Streets<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\nOrville Tate is 51 years old and has been homeless since 2009. J.T., was homeless until about a year ago and asked that his real name not be used (he will be referred to as J.T.). He is 50 and has never been married.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tate has been married three times and has a daughter and stepchildren. He worked as a warehouse and wastewater employee.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
J.T. has both a bachelors and masters degrees and is an engineer. He spends many hours now, when not working, on the streets helping the homeless. He tells a very stark story of life on the streets for the homeless.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing for them to do and boredom brings out problems,\u201d J.T. said. \u201cEspecially with the amount of drinking and other things they do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
J.T. believes there are more than 500 homeless men, women and youths in Kent, \u201cliving in cars, living in tents and living on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He stated many of the homeless congregate at the King County library, both inside and outside.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no objective in life, J.T. said. \u201cAnd with all the kids, meaning kids just out of high school, one of the biggest problems are these wanna-be gangsters. They are really not gangsters, they\u2019re just kids. Gangsters at least have an objective, they (the kids) don\u2019t even have an objective,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Many of the kids gather at the library and problems arise.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYou start seeing kids kicked out of library, the one place they should be\u2026 then you know there is a problem,\u201d J.T. said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
According to J.T officers come to the library many afternoons just to try to keep the problems to a minimum. J.T. said he observed one evening when an officer broke up two fights in one evening near the library.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Many services are available to help the homeless adults and youths, but J.T believes some have quit trying because of alcohol, drug abuse and other problems.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYou only get what you put the effort out to go get,\u201d J.T. said. Most don\u2019t have a direction\u2026 some have lost their drive\u2026 you watch some of them drink and they just get nastier and nastier.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
J.T. believes some are being enabled \u201cby handouts. They\u2019ve gotten used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tate agreed. \u201cThings are out there. You just have put in a little effort to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tate and J.T. said there are places in Kent to take free showers and get clean up. Many churches provide meals and other services.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Never Give Up<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\nTate\u2019s life\u00a0 became much more difficult about two years ago when he become involved with a man he met in a shelter.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy was running a check scam,\u201d Tate said. \u201cHe said he had all this money. That\u2019s how I lost my truck.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The man found out Tate had a truck and asked him to take him to appointments. He offered to pay him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The man eventually tied\u00a0 Tate into the check-writing scheme.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next thing I know I find out the whole thing was a scam,\u201d Tate said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He lost his truck and within a year there was warrant for his arrest on charges of identity theft and theft of funds.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were trying to pin this all on me,\u201d Tate said. \u201cIt tarnished my reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tate was charged with a felony, but J.T. helped him get the charge lowered to a misdemeanor theft.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no intention on my part at all,\u201d Tate said. \u201cBeing gullible, or whatever you want to call it. I was trying to help somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been tough for Tate after the problems with the check scam, felony charges and the many trials of living on the street.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSome days are harder than others,\u201d he said. \u201cSome days you feel like, \u2018well should I give up or shouldn\u2019t I?\u2019 But if you give up you just fall in-between the cracks and it is even harder to get back up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tate said he has some job prospects and he keeps going.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve exhausted all my benefits and everything,\u201d Tate said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Despite sending out numerous job applications, Tate said, \u201cthe calls are few and far between.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
J.T. said there are many on the streets who have given up.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMost these guys need help,\u201d J.T. said. \u201cThey need a warm place to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He said many homeless drink so they don\u2019t feel anything.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
One man J.T. looks out for on a regular basis is often struggling to survive.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI just brought him another blanket because I hadn\u2019t seen him in a week,\u201d J.T. said. \u201cHe was wrapped up and he was just shivering. He was in the skate park over by the park and ride. I asked him, \u201cWhy are you wrapped in these wet blankets and why are you in the streets?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The man shares a place with another man, but doesn\u2019t like him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I do this every couple weeks,\u201d J.T. said. \u201cI find him in blankets and they\u2019re soaking wet and he\u2019s trying to stay warm. I say, \u2018Come on. You\u2019re smarter than this.\u2019 But I just can\u2019t leave him. He won\u2019t take care of himself. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s the alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Part three: Homeless kids, drugs and surviving the nights.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Homelessness \u2013 it is a word, a tragedy and an issue that reflects the complex problems facing our region, state and nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19053"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}