When I first came to DC on Sept. 5, 2005, after Katrina, we went to the DC Armory. They refused me housing saying that my history was bad. So, from there, I left the DC Armory and went and stayed in a hotel. I was working with a case manager but I didn’t have anything like identification or anything like that. I had a friend who lived up in Northeast D.C. and she let me go stay with her for a while. Every day that I stayed with her, I would go out and wash cars. And I would make a little money washing cars. That’s when I got plugged in with the neighborhood. They was asking me where I was from in the neighborhood. They would say, “You talk funny like you from the country.” And I would tell them that I was from down South. But at the time, I kept wondering…I mean, I made money washing cars but that wasn’t enough money for me.
