EVERY SUCCESS STORY IS A GREAT STORY
Preface by Jeff Olivet
“Every success story is a great story,” says Glenise Hildahl as she describes her own journey out of homelessness, “but some people take smaller steps.” She’s right. Every success is great, no matter how small it may seem. Every person’s story is a tale of victories and defeats, of despair tempered by joy — which should make us all reticent to criticize the “failure” of others to achieve our idea of “success.”
Yet people who experience homelessness at some point in their lives typically fall victim to dehumanizing prejudice, stigma, and stereotype — borne of misunderstanding, fear, and indifference to others who have (so far) managed to avoid that devastating experience. The stories in these pages echo the experience of being dismissed and dehumanized — being made to feel somehow less that human…that somehow their stories don’t matter.
These stories were told to me by some of the most extraordinary people I have ever met, over the course of a few very warm days in June 2005 — at the National Health Care for the Homeless Conference in Washington D.C, and in the days that would follow. They were told to me in hotel lobbies and on park benches. They were told with great openness and remarkable insight.
“Being homeless humbled me,” said Amy Grassette, whose story you will read. I, too, have been humbled by the people whose faces and words are in these pages. I am moved by the willingness of these individuals to share their lives that the rest of us might learn from them. I am inspired by their courage and determination, and by their kindness and generosity.
What I learn from these lives is that there really is no fully accurate way to describe “homelessness.” None of the common stereotypes holds. The causes of homelessness are certainly rooted in societal factors — lack of affordable housing, broken health care systems, violence in homes and communities, poverty — as well as in personal vulnerabilities — mental illness, addiction, lack of social support. But the diversity of people without homes defies these generic explanations. They are people — people with pasts and futures.
The stories in this book barely scratch the surface of the complex causes and consequences of homelessness. They provide only a glimpse of lives lived on the streets and in shelters across America. While we have diligently tried to create a picture that reflects the diversity of homeless families and individuals, we acknowledge the intrinsic limitations of such a project.
Many of the stories here are of people whose lives have been devastated by addiction, and though addiction can be an incredibly powerful force, it is by no means the only cause of homelessness. Jobs are lost. Rents are raised. Injury and illness come out of nowhere. Moms with kids flee domestic violence. Teenagers escape abuse or age out of foster care. Mental illness ravages people’s minds.
At the core of this little book is a belief that every individual’s story is sacred, and that through the process of telling our stories, we experience healing.
So here are a few sacred stories — powerful stories of “people with lives.” Let the stories sink in. Share them with others. Find ways to tell your own story, and make space for others to tell theirs.
Jeff Olivet
Cambridge, Massachusetts
June 16, 2005
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