Alberto G, Team Member
My Name is Alberto G. and I was born in Mexico. ’71. I came to California in ’74. I moved to Santa Cruz, CA. My mother’s immigration was not traditional. She had a pretty good job, stable, working for retired Canadians. A lot of Canadians over there in Mexico that retire. She left and brought two of my siblings over here I grew up in Santa Cruz county until I left in 2000. I had a good relationship with my mom and siblings.
I was able to do the normal life thing other than being social, having close friends. I was working at Taco Bell when I was 16 and lied about my age. That’s where I started. I got a fulltime job because my parents went back to Mexico. My mother got very ill, she had Parkinson’s disease. My father decided to take her over there because the doctors didn’t know what to do. I put that on the backburner, that I could not socialize…I could do everything else, go to work, go get groceries, come home to a warm place at night. After my parents left, me and my brother stayed at the apartment where we grew up but we couldn’t keep up the payments for the rent. We went to live with a sister here in San Francisco. That’s when I got into crack. And it started in 1988. I don’t forget the year or where I bought it. Six months ago was the last time I used it.
Before coming to San Francisco, I hadn’t ever really been on the streets. One night my brother threw me out of the house for using, I walked the streets all night until daylight.
My siblings were giving me tough love, so I left. I left most of my stuff, I took two bags and just left. I was actually working a pretty nice job but it was on the brink of me losing it. I was not showing up, calling in to work an hour before. I left those problems to only create new ones right here. I had $300 and got a room for less than a week and smoked the rest. That was insane, that was crazy. It was really awful when I realized I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I just wanted somewhere warm to sleep, clean clothes. Food in my belly and with money in my wallet. I just wanted someone to talk to about how their day was.
I didn’t have that, and I was homeless for about six years. I didn’t have anyone to talk to. Using was like a cycle, I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to and so I would use. It took me a while to break that cycle, to tell myself that you might not have much to live or show for, but I finally came around and said I can do it for myself. I’m trying to work on those bad thoughts that come across because of the drug use, I’m ready to accept who I am and where I’m at. Every Tuesday, there’s two organizations that feed the people in need, the hungry. I go there every Tuesday to just get out of the house, and I could use the food. I used to see DST come by every time I was there, so I just had to ask them how to qualify. This person with the green shirt, he gave me a business card and it took me a few weeks to come, but I came, and I asked another Team Member about it and I came.
It makes me humble, to be cleaning around the downtown area. Or coming around a police officer, and instead of being nervous like I was back when I was using crack, I can look at him now and say hey, hello officer. It takes me awhile, but now I can say hello. Before I wouldn’t have even gone near them.
DST’s helping me come out of that isolation. It’s the right place. I want to end up with a job. I think I really can give back five more years of full time working. I don’t have to be on SSI. Start going to AA meetings, get a sponsor, be the coffee maker. I want to live at least five years with no drugs, living as much as possible to normal. I want to work full-time.
I told my case manager that most people who are homeless and drop out, they do that because they think people don’t care about them anymore. So for me, you cannot have those assumptions and have to make up with them. Leaving my family is what led me to homelessness, to doing hard drugs, to losing my family. You got to communicate, you just can’t turn your back on your family and friends.