The article “‘Homelessness doesn’t care’: A life on the streets” provides an honest and poignant view into the reality of homelessness; and the accompanying instability and vulnerability. This article, written by Paul D. Shinkman of wtop.com, shares the story of a hard-working man’s fall from grace, and his struggle to build himself back up.
WASHINGTON — Alan Banks had a comfortable life. After a four-year stint in the military, the D.C. native, now 52, earned top secret clearance and worked for a series of government agencies as a security and protection officer, assisting in guarding presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, he said.
He earned a salary “well into” six figures, and with his wife of two decades was raising two kids as they built a second house on the Chesapeake Bay. He owned a boat, a truck and had an additional $100,000 worth of belongings in storage the last time he inventoried it.
He dealt with the homeless population in D.C. for years as part of his security work, he said, and never thought he would end up in that situation himself.
“I never asked myself or wondered once, ‘How does a homeless person survive?’” he said. “I never asked or wanted those things, because I’ll never need to have that information because I’ll never be homeless.”
But a series of incidents in his life left the protection professional out in the cold for six years.
“The joke was on me,” he said.
At 1:30 p.m. on a Thursday, Banks consults his digital watch. It’s two hours after lunchtime in downtown D.C., so he knows exactly where to find edible, discarded food.
But learning how to survive on the streets was an uphill battle. One of the most difficult parts of homelessness initially is the absence of instruction, he said.
“If they’d thrown me in the woods when I became homeless, I would have been fine because of my career training,” Banks said.
The Air Force and Department of Justice veteran spent most of his professional life in protective services and weapons training, he said. His last position before ending up on the streets was as a supervisor at the Smithsonian police force where he was a weapons instructor.
Banks is among the 20 to 25 percent of homeless people who suffer from some form of mental illness, according to a National Coalition for the Homeless estimate. He has clinical depression — which would not be diagnosed until 1996 when his father died — and is a self-described introvert, who had to work for much of his life at interacting with others.
Without any idea of what to do when his life fell apart in 2004, Banks spent his first three months of homelessness without showering, and without speaking to anyone.
He describes his first “wake-up call” to the severity of his situation, when he laughed at an article he read in a newspaper and had to turn around to see where the noise came from.
“I’d forgotten what my voice sounded like,” he said.
But there are some sounds he’ll never forget.
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