Tina
Tina is 31 years old and has been struggling to find a home for a while now. Tina has been having trouble sleeping and eating, and she struggles with mental illness and alcohol addiction. Yet, despite these hardships, Tina has maintained a positive outlook with the recent help of the PADS organization, and she is currently waiting to get an apartment approved.
“In the past I had a rough time… I’ve been bouncing from houses to houses in the past and I’m like, okay — now it’s a brand new day. Here we go again. Same old day, but it’s March. I’m starting all over from the past from now. I’m thinking all these people have been telling me, ‘Don’t give up.’ When I was in Vista Hospital, I went in there by myself. They didn’t force me, I needed help because I had depression, anxiety; I had been hearing voices [and] I’ve been seeing spirits. I tried not to do suicide either. I’ve been doing that (attempting suicide) and it was kind of wrong. I wasn’t ready to be alive. I wanted to go upstairs (in heaven) where my mom is… My mother and my grandmother are up there. My mom got shot in the back of the head in downtown Waukegan. My grandmother passed away too… So, I had a rough time on that one because I lost both of them. Now the only one that had responsibility was my Aunt Rosemary, but I left her house and I wasn’t thinking. All this time when people always tell me in my head, ‘Do what’s right, don’t do what’s wrong. Think positive. Stay positive.’ I’m thinking all over again that I’m going through more problems [now] than I [was] going through [then]. I’ve been shaking, I’ve been having migraines, I’ve almost fell, but somebody caught me when I was at PADS. I told this friend of mine that all these people in PADS tell me to stay positive and think positive — don’t let people put you down… I’m positive because I’ve kept myself going. Every time I’m out on the street, I feel like I’m doing it all over again. But, I know what to do. I just keep on keeping my head up and stay[ing] strong. God is watching me and he’s helping.”