INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Life is a lot different for a formerly homeless man who goes by “Pops.”
“A month ago I couldn’t walk without a shopping cart as a walker. Now I don’t need a cane or a walker. Everything is a lot better,” Pops said, sitting on his new couch.
Pops shows that when just one person offers a helping hand, it can change lives.
“It’s incredible. I’ve got teeth. I get glasses here next week. A house, transportation; I bought a motorcycle,” Pops said.
He didn’t get out of bed that day until 10 a.m., a luxury he never thought he’d have.
Just a month ago, Pops was sleeping on the ground, his seven broken bones making it unbearable to get up.
“I’d lay there for half a day,” Pops remembered.
He was at the end of his rope a month ago, crying in an Independence Burger King.
“It seems so long ago,” Pops said.
Katt Hurst took a picture of that moment, a heartbreaking snapshot that went viral. It also exposed her to the world of homelessness.
“I feel that Independence in general and our community realizes that this is just a big problem and that citizens are going to have to step up,” Hurst said.
She said she’s “just a regular citizen” and was in the right place at the right time to help Pops.
The support from the community was amazing. Pops now has a home, furniture, and medical care.
But Hurst said there are many other homeless people like Pops in Independence and not enough federally-funded services. Through helping Pops, she found out how hard it is for someone to get an ID, a social security card, or a birth certificate.
“I’ve been robbed so many times, I had nothing,” Pops said.
Hurst said they went to the DMV three times.
“You have to have a residency to get your license," she said.
Essentially, you have to have ID to get ID.
In Kansas City, Hope Faith Ministries said very few clients have the necessary documents to get themselves out of homelessness.
The day center alone sees around 400 clients per day, with around five newly homeless people coming through the doors a week.
“Depending on what the budget is depends on how many people we can help when they come in for their IDs and birth certificates. That’s about $26 per person,” Teianna Cooper with Client Services said.
Cooper helps clients establish Hope Faith as a residency to start the process.
To get ID, clients there have to commit to community service. Right now, around eight clients are in that process.
Why aren’t more doing it?
“I wish I could answer that question,” Cooper said. “Sometimes being homeless, the list of things they have to go through on a day-to-day basis, sometimes identification is just not at the top of their priority list. Maybe eating is.”
Pops explained, “You’re in a hole, and you can just never climb out of it, so you just continue to go deeper.”
Hurst said that’s why citizens should lend a helping hand.
“The citizens of Independence love their city. And they get really annoyed and irritated with things like the homeless, and I really wish they had the experience that I’ve had, because I learned by trial of fire exactly what’s going on,” Hurst explained.
Because someone thought enough about Pops, he has a new outlook on life, and friends that have turned into family.
“It was like an answer to a prayer,” he said with a smile.
A crowdfunding page has raised nearly $14,000 to get Pops on his feet.
