This story is long and a little crazy but Im gonna try to shorten it we’re able. So last weekend when I went to NOLA to close on our Condo, I had to stay the first night in the hotel, so I stayed in the JW Marriott on Canal St. They upgraded me to the biggest hotel room I’ve ever had. It was the rooftop penthouse suite, 2 stories! 30th and 31st floor. 2 bedrooms, plus a pullout in one of the living rooms (there were like 2.5 living rooms). So it awesome, plenty of space.

I go out that night, and I’m coming back home pretty late, im close to the hotel and my eye catches a New Orleans Saints fleur de lis symbol on the sidewalk. I look down and see its on a backpack that’s attached to a dude that looks like hes 16 just sleeping there. I know in my super upgraded room, that im staying in by myself, I literally had 3 unused beds in separate and lockable bedrooms. So I talk to the kid and offer a room, and he trusts me enough to take it. So we go back to the hotel and he crashes in a bedroom that was just a normal hotel room haha, had 2 queens in it.

The next morning I wake up and leave to go close on the new condo. So I do that, and I come back, and he’s still there. We talk for a while (we had talked the night before too). I learn:
1) He goes by “Ace” (he tells me his real name too but I don’t wanna put it on here.) He’s actually 20, not 16 like I thought.
2) He was born in NOLA, moved to Houston with his mom to avoid Katrina.
3) Moved back to NOLA about 5 years, he had a job working at McDonalds and Desire in the quarter. His mom was heavily into drugs and would find and take his money. His thought process at the time was to get away from that so he moved out. Unfortunately living on the streets of NOLA trying to survive made school seem pointless to a 16 year old so he dropped out after his junior year of highschool.
4) He’s got no record, doesn’t do drugs, and doesn’t drink. Records are public—I checked lol. And he was with me for 72 hours and made no efforts to drink or do drugs. That’s a long ass time if was a homeless addict to go cold turkey.

So after this, he ends up staying in the condo with me. It’s just me and him for 3 days painting the place, (my family was still in Florida). I talked to some people with some programs in NOLA, but anything decent required him to have a birth certificate and social security cards! I don’t know what homeless people are running around with that. I don’t even have those.

So after getting to know him for a few days, and realizing that hes a good dude in a bad situation, I’m like “I cant put him back on Canal Street”. Anyone that knows NOLA knows that like all cities, crime and drugs are rampant. Hes clean now but no one can stay out there forever just constantly hungry and not end up using or dealing. I knew putting him back meant a pretty solid chance of his life eventually going sideways….

So I took him back to Florida. Bold choice right?

He has been living in our garage now for a couple days haha (our garage has beds, TV, air conditioning, etc). He’s doing well, we got him a job at Joes Crab Shack already, we ordered birth certificates for him, got him study materials for his GED. Some friends were amazing and donated a bunch of clothes that fit him as well as loaned us a bike to get him to and from work. He’s still been drug/alcohol free the whole time and weve had no issues. Hes been very thankful. But he’s effectively entirely dependent on us right now for all the basics (food, toiletries, clothes, etc). It’s getting expensive quick haha. And I don’t know how long its gonna take to get him fully up on his feet. If anyone would like to donate to the cause it would be appreciated!! 100% will go to his living costs and a savings for him so we can find him his own place to live here soon. Ace and us appreciate everyone who has helped so far! I think we’re literally taking a life that would have just added to the big homeless situation in NOLA and giving him a real chance at not ending up back on the streets.