Welcome to the “People of Pillars: A Portrait Gallery.” Every weekday in December, we will be sharing a portrait of an individual or individuals receiving services from Pillars as clients, tenants, or program participants. This gallery is an opportunity for the community to learn more about what the reality of homelessness is in the Fox Valley from those with lived experience.
It is important to note that all of the individuals featured in this gallery participated voluntarily and are willingly sharing their stories with you; however, their names have been changed to protect their privacy. Any statements, views, and opinions shared by these individuals are their own and are not endorsed by Pillars in any way. Conversations with these individuals were captured on Tuesday, November 2, 2022. Additional follow-up information about their journey to housing may be added separately as needed to bring their story up-to-date.
Steve*
We first introduced you to Steve* in the previous post. He shares a deeper perspective on what it's like sharing a home in the SRO program with people who were recently strangers. “You’ve got trying times. You’ve got five people stuck under one roof with common areas, but for the most part, everybody does their part, and we all get along. We can all sit on the porch and have a smoke and sit and laugh and have a good time and talk about sports, football, Facebook — silly stuff like that. Everybody has their own challenges in life, but we all kind of put that aside in order to sit out here and converse and have a good time. […] We even handed out Halloween candy. Mark* is the godsend for the candy, because he gave us a ton of granola bars to hand out, and I’m like, ‘What child is going to pick out granola bars over Whoppers and licorice?’ They grabbed the granola bars. They were gone first.” (Photo Credit: Adam Hilbelink, November 2, 2022) *The name of the client in this post has been changed to protect his privacy.
