FAQ

My Current Status:   

I am now living in housing through a quasi “Housing First” program organized by the city of Nashville  And I have been in this tiny apartment since May of 2008.  Most of my rent is covered by a Section 8 voucher.  I still have to come up with a small rent payment and am responsible for my other necessities ~ and that is a bit difficult since I am currently unemployed.  To an extent I depend on donations generated by my blog and other acts of kindness from others, so to maintain my current living situation.  Part of being in this Housing First program means that I am assigned a case manager.  Mine is the best case manager I have ever run across.  And she is diligently working with me to get my situation stablized, so that I don’t end up back on the street.

My apartment in the alley

This row of apartments along the alley is where I currently live.

The Basics:

My name is Kevin Barbieux

I was born January 5th 1961

I was born and raised in San Diego California

I became homeless the first time in February 1982

I experienced several seperate episodes of homelessness, some lasting only months, some lasting for years. All total, I have been homeless over 13 years.

I spent over two years in different halfway houses.

Except for a few short months in San Diego and Las Vegas, all of my homelessness occured in Nashville Tennessee.

I created a homeless newspaper in 1998. I closed it after the 2nd issue. It was titled “HomeWord” I was a member of the NASNA association for those two months.

I started blogging about homelessness in August 2002.

I was involved in the creation of the street newspaper, “The Contributor” which is still in publication.

I served on the Mayors Taskforce on Homelessness in Nashville, and the followup Metro Homelessness Commission.

I have lived in rescue missions, the Salvation Army, St. Vincent DePaul shelter, various churches through Room in The Inn, in cars, and in various downtown locations, alleys, bus stop benches, etc.

When not homeless, I have worked mostly retails jobs.

During my longest period of non-homelessness I was married. We owned a house, had two children.

I suffer from depression and social anxiety. During boughts of depression and social anxiety I often become anti social and self destructive to the point that I lose everything of value, including my job and home.

More to come…