Antwuan, 19, in crisp white shirt and bright geometric tie. Photograph by Larry C. Price.
Nights on the street in Dayton, Antwuan stayed awake, listening to jazz on his iPod, a relic from his comfortable, middle-class life. As he counted the hours until dawn, too afraid to sleep, a single question played over and over in his mind.
How could someone who was so successful in high school end up like this?
The bad decisions and their consequences had piled up with stunning swiftness. He was going to enlist in the Navy, but didn’t. He drove without a license, hit a car and left the scene of the accident. The court was lenient; his parents weren’t. They hassled him, had expectations. He didn’t need them. His parents, fed up, said, fine go.
It was a minor dispute over something trivial. I thought I was ready to leave the nest. Words were said. I felt I couldn’t stay there anymore.
He stayed with friends; his welcome ran out. He didn’t know what else to do and was too proud to ask. By September 2008, Antwuan, 19, was homeless. He found places to hang out near traffic and lights and kept to himself.
When other homeless people were coming around, I’d go into alert mode. Anything can happen. You’re always bracing yourself.
During the day, Antwuan worked for a construction company owned by his girlfriend’s father. She packed lunches for him and sent them to the work sites with her father. On the way to jobs, he slept in the van and tried to keep the rest of the crew from finding out that he was homeless. After work, he hunkered down in a nearby park. The park felt less dangerous than other places, but it had one big drawback. It was entirely too close to home, too close to friends.
I didn’t want people that I knew to see me on the street. When I’d run into someone, I’d pretend I was just hanging, you know.
Antwuan was one of the lucky ones. His time on the street was short-lived. His girlfriend’s father figured things out and persuaded him to seek help from Daybreak, a nonprofit organization that provides housing and social services for homeless teenagers. Now living in a supervised Daybreak apartment, Antwuan is enrolled in job training and is working on his application to a community college. He’s interviewing for jobs and dressing the part, dapper in crisp white shirt and tie. He’s learned enough about construction working as a helper on job sites to know that he wants to study basic building design, maybe get a degree in architecture. Going green, he says, is the ticket.
My goal now is to get myself back on track, to get a steady job, learn how to budget money, spend wisely. I plan to support and maintain a family. If you believe in your goals and work for you goals, anything can happen.
