A Soldier’s Journey
Randy saw Jay and others who worked for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership Navigators Program fairly often. The navigators walked the streets in Old Sacramento looking for homeless people they could help get off the streets. For a couple of years, Randy and Jay exchanged hellos as Randy went about his business doing maintenance work for a few nearby businesses. Randy knew what Jay did for a living and he knew Jay had no idea he was homeless.
Randy and his navigator Jvance
“I had no idea he was living in a closet,” Jay said. “I just thought he worked as a handy man in Old Sac during the day and went home at night. I had no idea!”
Unfortunately for Randy, someone discovered his secret and turned him onto the streets, setting off a chain of events in a life that was not at all the one he had planned when he graduated from high school and joined the Army. He served in the Army infantry for 16 years before deciding it was time to do something else. He came to Sacramento at the urging of his longtime girlfriend, who moved up here with him before deciding to end the relationship. Randy admits he was pretty angry at life back then and that he gradually drifted away from the people who cared about him, ending up on the street until he discovered that closet.
About the same time Randy was forced back on the street, his health started to deteriorate from lack of medical care and worsening diabetes that was causing problems with his feet. Untreated diabetes, no medical care and homelessness are a bad combination and it wasn’t long before the lethal mixture resulted in a foot infection that turned to gangrene. When he finally did get medical care, all doctors could do was to amputate above the knee of his right leg.
Still, Randy didn’t want anything to do with Jay or the other navigators.
On New Year’s Day 2009, that changed after Randy was beaten and ended up back in the hospital. This time, doctors discovered another gangrenous sore on his left foot and had to amputate below his left knee. That put Randy in a wheelchair, but it also helped him decide to listen to what Jay, Crystal and the others navigators had been telling him.
“I was skeptical about the whole thing,” Randy said, “but it turns out that they were telling the truth. They’ve given me all the help I needed. I have a place to live now, with a bed and a shower, and Jay worked with me to get my Social Security going, so I have some money coming in now.”
The Navigator Program is using hotel vouchers to give Randy a place to stay while they work with him on a long-term housing solution. It’s all part of the program’s approach of working closely with each individual to provide access to services and help people like Randy design a future to move toward.
When asked about the future, Randy says he’s just happy to have a place to call home. For now, he’s taking it day by day and letting things happen. It’s been a long and punishing road from the Army to this place and a little rest and recuperation might be in order. After serving his country for so many years, it’s good to see there’s a Navigator Program in place to help the country Randy gave so much to find a way to give back.
