It feels ‘great’ to be off the streets
When I met Joshua Johnson six years ago, it was outside a Baytown motel. He was staying there temporarily.
He said at the time, “I was living at an RV park. Me and my friend were staying there. He lit a cigarette and threw it at the propane tank. It had a hose leak, and it blew up. The whole bedroom caught on fire. From there, it all went down hill. Ever since then, I haven’t really had a place to live. I’ve stayed with friends. I’ve slept at bus stops. I’ll get on the bus and go to the back to sleep. I fall asleep at the library sometimes. I’m on the waiting list for low-income housing. Recently, I’ve been staying at this motel.”
You may see Joshua around town, riding his black bike while listening to his favorite country tunes from Alan Jackson and George Strait. These days, he has a place to call home.
I caught up with him last week, across the street from an apartment complex. A friend from church helped him secure a spot there nearly three years ago.
“It’s great. I’m staying warm at night. I’m taking showers. I’m cooking real food. And I can actually make coffee.”
The basics that many of us take for granted are much more than that for people in the community who find themselves living on the streets. Joshua has been there and done that.
As he told me back in 2016, “We prefer not to be called homeless. We like to be treated like regular, normal human beings. We’re just having a tough time. We’re just trying to survive day to day.”
These days, for Joshua, life is a little more normal.
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