I met a homeless man in uptown Yucaipa, back in November, and he told us a little bit about his story about how he became homeless and no longer had contact with his family. It was a really cold night, and I was wearing shorts by my own choice and therefore was cold, but he took his own jacket off of his back to make sure I was warm. I felt bad because it was my own fault I was cold, yet he didn’t even hesitate to make sure I was warm. We bought him some water and later went on our way. We would see him almost everyday sitting on the same bench, and I hadn’t lately. I was happy to see this outcome for someone in my hometown. This was a post on a Yucaipa facebook page.
“I met Kelly back in October and he was homeless and a drunk. He’d burned all the bridges he ever had with his wife, kids and friends in the community because of his drug and alcohol problems. You probably remember him as the guy who said “good morning or good afternoon or good evening” by the donut shop or liquor store off California and the Blvd.
In January I was able to get him into a rehab. He was ready but so scared. We took this picture on the street in front of the rehab facility. He had the option of 30, 60 or 90 day program and he chose the 90.
He did so good in the rehab house program that they asked him to be a patient/manager of the house.
Yesterday I received a phone call from Kelly asking if I was home and if I’d like a visitor. Uh. Duh!
He showed up with his wife and son and they were out house hunting because they are getting back together and the first thing he had to do after our gigantic hug was to show me his certificate of completion.
He has a new lease on life and he’s clean and sober and has his family back. It was a really good day. So exceedingly proud of Kelly!
To follow more of what I’m doing to help the homeless here in my city please join The Faces of Yucaipa on Facebook.
You can also see videos of Kelly in his transformation on my YouTube channel MARIVB14″

While my last post was on social media harming the homeless issue, this time people actually used social media for good news.