George Hill recounts the 12 years he spent homeless and living on the streets until he got himself to a hospital psychiatric unit and off the streets for good.
Originally aired February 22, 2008, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
George Hill (GH)
GH: I was homeless 12 years and I can’t even begin to tell you the misery of rain. I don’t even care how slight the rainfall is, it was misery beyond belief. And then sometimes you sleep during the day because it’s warm enough to sleep and then at night you keep moving so you don’t freeze. And I used to watch people get on the busses and I used to say, you know, those are normal people and you feel anything but normal.
One time I just happened to be sitting on this bag ’cause if you didn’t carry your blankets or your jackets around in a bag they were gone. And here comes a homeless man so dirty it was just awful I mean his hands were like black with the exception of his knuckles and joints where the bone had kind of rubbed through the dirt. He had rags tied on his feet and his hair was matted in two big nasty dreads. And out of all the people in skid row he looked down at me and reached in his pocket and pulled out a dollar in change, ’cause that’s all he had. And he gave it to me and he said, ”Here, man, I feel sorry for you!” And he shuffled away.
Something about that moment changed everything and I just said, ”Oh no no no no. I’m going to get some help.” With that dollar in change I caught the bus and I went to the psych unit in the hospital. You know, I still think about it sometimes and I don’t have regrets for anything that happened because going through the homelessness just made me so grateful, determined, thankful. And now every time it rains and I have keys in my pocket, I have a joy of life that you cannot believe.