NORWALK — Pushing a cart full of bottles and cans, Paris Stricklin never asked anyone for money. He became a staple on Connecticut Avenue, and people started bringing him their cans and bottles. On a particularly blustery cold day shortly before Christmas, Amy Stackhouse, a nanny from Norwalk, decided she needed to do more for Stricklin after bringing him cans.
“I just remember driving home thinking, ‘I’m going to make a fire. I just want to get inside,’” Stackhouse said. “I walked into my house, and I just started crying, thinking about Paris, even homeless people in general that don’t have the luxury of getting out of the cold.
“I wanted to put something together for him in particular, and I thought, a warm sleeping bag for sleeping outside and maybe a couple of other items — a gift card to the supermarket where he can just get quick meals.”
She started with a Facebook post, and beyond her expectations, the community rallied to help Stricklin. Total strangers donated items and sent money to Stackhouse through Venmo, a mobile payment app, which she used to buy a new sleeping bag and other items for Stricklin. The remaining money covered a $100 ShopRite gift card.
After Stackhouse posted a photo of everything the community had purchased and thanked everyone, she delivered the bag to Stricklin, who said he felt “overpowered” by the gift.
“It started off as simple as just anyone who has a heart doesn’t want to see anybody freezing cold, doesn’t want to see anybody starving and without a home,” Stackhouse said. “This man in particular, I think he’s just a very familiar face in the area.”
Stricklin lost his job and left Columbus, Ga., to go to Manhattan in 2017. He has been homeless and living on the East Coast since then. Stricklin said that he has lived in every borough of New York City, and in 2018, he took a train from Manhattan to Connecticut with intentions of returning to New York.
However, he was unable to board a train to Manhattan and has stayed in Connecticut since. Stricklin explained that he made the deliberate choice to not ask people for money because he didn’t want strangers to yell things like “get a job” or “stop bumming” at him, and he also wanted to be able to say that he never asked people for anything.
The supplies were just the beginning of the community’s generosity, however. A neighbor in the community, Victoria Hines, commented on the post with a new idea to help Stricklin. Hines then created her own post dedicated to finding a way to give Stricklin a hotel stay for Christmas.
“From there, it just really, really blew up,” Stackhouse said. “The money just started pouring in, and people were sharing the posts. Then I put it on my personal page because at that point now we had gotten him enough money for seven nights at the Extended Stay America. … Basically, this is my last attempt to get enough money to get one more night so we could check him in Friday night because the temperature was supposed to drop so severely. And then on my page, another big outpour of generosity.”
Between the hotel and donations to the original post, Stackhouse said the total raised for Stricklin is over $4,700. Donations are still being accepted on Venmo at @LetsHelpParis. He is staying in the hotel now, and Stricklin said he sees the hotel as his home because he has never had his own home.
“I never had my own place,” Stricklin said. “Never had my own vehicle. … Now, fortunately, I have my own things. I’ve never had it.”
Permanent housing is a strong possibility in the near future. From the Facebook posts, a couple people who work in low-income housing have reached out to Stackhouse and Hines and are able to help navigate the paperwork Stricklin needs.
Because he is still doesn’t have permanent housing, physical donations, according to Stackhouse, are tricky since he needs to be mobile. Instead, donations through Venmo or directly to Stricklin are more helpful as they can then be directed toward what Stricklin needs in the next step of his journey.
“It’s so helpful,” Stricklin said. “Acknowledging my condition and everything being a homeless person all these years. I’m so highly grateful. I’m highly grateful for everyone’s support, the cans, bottles, their funds. People need their funds. And I ain’t never asked nobody for no money… All I want to do is hold two bottles in my hands and clench them.”
Stackhouse hopes that Stricklin’s story and the generosity of the community can help change the way people look at people experiencing homelessness.
“I want people to see that these aren’t just like these homeless entities. These are human beings, and they all have a story. There’s somebody’s son, there’s somebody’s brother.”
Source link
