Michael Harris has many dreams to pursue in the new decade — restart his construction business, reconnect with his five kids, launch an inspirational Youtube channel — and it all soon may become a reality because he has secured a housing voucher.
For the last 20 years, Mr. Harris has been homeless, living in apartment buildings for which he was doing construction. This past year he lived in a tent on K Street NE near Union Station. Through it all, he had applied a dozen times for housing assistance but never heard back.
“I was going to get up and get going with or without that dang voucher, for real for real. Enough is enough,” said Mr. Harris, 58. “I have had some bumps and bruises, I have fallen down. I have had some setbacks. Get over it, get going, enjoy life again. With or without friends, with or without mentors, with or without case workers, with or without partners, I have got to do me.”
He said it was easy for him to get “comfortable” in homelessness and he took pride in where he lives in NoMa. It was easy in the sense that he knows where to go to get necessities — a network of shelters and soup kitchens where he can get food, clothes and other goods.
And he always carries extra supplies on his wheelchair for neighbors or other homeless people he meets. As he rolls along the sidewalk, he picks up trash and befriends other homeless people, offering them cigarettes and asking if they need any food. In this way, he helps create a sense of community among his neighbors and a sense of protection for himself.
Christy Respress, executive director of the nonprofit Pathways to Housing D.C., hails the District’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, which is helping Mr. Harris find a home of his own.
“It’s the fastest way to connect people with housing,” Ms. Respress said.
The program allows people to pick an apartment where they want in the city, within certain cost limits. Voucher recipients have to pay about 30% of their income to live there for the rest of their life as long as they qualify for the housing assistance.
Under a contract with the D.C. Department of Human Services, Pathways manages about 350 vouchers. The city’s new budget provides for funds for about 700 more vouchers.
Mr. Harris’ 20-year wait for a voucher ended about two months ago when he met a Pathways caseworker at a weekly Bible study and men’s group. The caseworker helped him apply for a voucher — and eventually for an apartment on Bladensburg Road NE.
“I am on a journey, and you are catching me at the very beginning of it,” Mr. Harris said.
He said he moved around a lot as a kid because his dad was in the military. He remembers moving back to the District at about 8 years old, when he and his older brother, Nathaniel, were placed in the care of the now-defunct Junior Village orphanage for two years because both of their parents were alcoholics.
He then moved into a foster home with a nice family in Arlington for six years, which he says “showed him a different side of life.” But when he was 17, his dad, although still an alcoholic, regained custody again and moved the family to Atlanta.
His brother eventually returned to the District to attend Howard University. His dad often didn’t come home at the end of the day, leaving Mr. Harris alone in a city where he knew no one.
Before Mr. Harris moved back to the D.C. area at the age of 20, he had moved into his own apartment in Atlanta, gotten a job working the presses at a newspaper, dropped out of high school and impregnated a woman.
He spent the rest of the 20th century building his career in commercial and residential construction in Alexandria, Virginia, where he lived, got married and divorced twice, and had four more children. He says he wants to hire a detective to find them.
After his second divorce around 2000, Mr. Harris became homeless. He lived in various development projects, where he provided security and around-the-clock maintenance services for 15 years.
“The depressive state I was in from the marriage falling apart made it easy to just get involved and stay involved with the drugs and deal with the dysfunctional lifestyle of being unstable,” he said, adding that around the same time his employees introduced him to crack cocaine.
His addiction continued for 15 years until he went to a rehabilitation facility in Laurel, Maryland.
Mr. Harris faced another challenge about nine years ago when he started to notice swelling in his knee from a bone disease that eventually put him in a wheelchair.
His physical state, though, has not stopped him from continuing his construction work, and he already has business plans. He lights up when talking about restarting his construction business with the intention of hiring homeless people, and he wants to build tiny homes to create more affordable housing.
“I think it is so cool,” he said.
• Sophie Kaplan can be reached at skaplan@washingtontimes.com.
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