LogFAQs > #927634154

*13, but a month or so before I turned 14

My dad was arrested for possession when I was 4 and my mom and I became homeless shortly afterwards. We lived in an RV for a while but then it broke down. We kept living in it for a while in a parking lot at a strip mall, but the retail establishments complained (I mean, justifiably tbf) so we got it towed to where she worked at an office park actually.

That also didn't work out so we ended up in an actual homeless shelter. That worked okay but my dad was at this point getting out into a halfway house sort of situations. He relapsed a few times and went back to jail, but when he got out for real we tried to got an apartment (he wasn't allowed in the homeless shelter, though it was a family shelter with men and lots aren't just FYI).

But he had trouble finding work partially due to his criminal record. He worked under the table in construction and we sort of bounced around in illegal living situations -- renting out rooms in houses over the occupancy limits/where it wasn't permitted mostly.

But in 2001 the dot com bubble burst and he got laid off; he built offices and installed cubicles in the bay area so it hit us pretty hard even though it wasn't a big national thing.

That's when stuff got really bad. We got unexpectedly got locked out of our 'apartment' but it was an illegal living arrangement so no lease or recourse. Lost basically everything. We had to live in a literal crack house (cooked it and sold it there) which was kind of both due to it being super cheap because of a lot of vagrants living there and also because my dad likes crack so he knew the dude that owned the place. Me and my mom and my dad all lived in one bedroom of this like hey Arnold style boarding house.

One day the cops raided the house. The landlord/druglord busted into our room with a big bag. Asked my dad to stash it then rushed back out to deal with the cops. I was terrified, crying my eyes out, all of it. The cops came into our room and saw me and asked to speak to my parents in the hall way. They didn't search our room, I'm p sure cuz we were an unexpected white family.

I later learned that was an illegal(?) gun. Crazy stuff man.

My dad would do other stuff, like getting money orders/depositing cash etc I assume partially selected to do so due to his whiteness. I myself was a lookout for a time but that involvement in crime lead my mom to taking me and leaving my dad.

Well we lived in a car but that broke down so my mom lost her job. Car got towed, too. My mom reached back out to my dad for help and he was working a little under the table and one of his clients let us live in their shed. That's when my mom reached out to her sister in Arkansas and she wired us money to get the car and move out here.

Not sure why I typed this all up I've never expressed the whole story in writing before though it felt kinda nice

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But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.