We met Albert behind a Family Dollar in Spartanburg, SC. While we were recording Granny’s story three or four other homeless people had shown up. Albert was one of them.
Albert first became homeless at the age of 13. He is now 65 and has spent 15 years of his life on the streets. Albert has been run over by cars four times in his life and is disabled. We had to help him sit down and stand up. He can barely walk on his own.
Before Albert was homeless he survived by working on migrant farm labor camps. Albert traveled from state to state working in these camps for food and lodging. Before too long, Albert became too old too work and was forced to live out on the streets.
“The hardest part about homeless is sleeping under the bridge, no covers, nothing. Gets something to eat once a day at the soup kitchen. It's not a nice thing to be homeless. You can't eat when you want. You can't get a bath when you want.”
He says people don’t usually treat him too bad. But no one wants him hanging around their stores. The only thing that keeps him going everyday is the friendships he’s made with other people on the streets.
Albert gets a disability check every few months, but it isn’t enough for him to afford a place to stay. The local soup kitchen provides one meal a day for him but besides that, whether he gets to eat more than once a day is up to the mercy of strangers.
Albert is hopeful he’ll get out of his situation one day. He wakes up dreaming that one day he may have a house or apartment of his own. But Albert is going to need help to be able to do that. Being 65, disabled, and unable to work doesn’t leave much hope for Albert. Without some sort of outside assistance he will sleep under a bridge until the day he dies.