Living A Life Of Service-Howard Needs OUR Help
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If there’s one thing we know about Howard, it’s that he loves to help others. Unfortunately, that drive to help others drove him down a path where he was taken advantage of and is now at risk of losing his home.
Howard would never ask for help. That’s why I’m stepping in as Howard’s long-time friend to try to give him a hand up. As all of his friends know, Howard has a positive disposition, a great smile, a helpful heart and a great sense of humor. Howard needs the help of all of those people that have had the pleasure of having his friendship, his mentorship, his sponsorship. This good man who loves his family, his friends and his dogs, is struggling and I want to help. He has stumbled in his journey by trying to do right and be the best possible person, now he just needs a hand from those people that know and love him. Let’s pour our love on him.
Howard has, in his life, fallen victim to hardships and has always worked hard and persevered. He is an overcomer. However, the recent string of events will be challenging, at best, to overcome.
In 2019 Howard started a new job with the ability to work from home, which was great for getting through the COVID crisis, and at the same time, gave him an opportunity to work on his dream of HELPING PEOPLE. He was working toward using part of his home as a recovery home to help people maintain their sobriety. This dream was dampened with too many obstacles, such as licensing and legal requirements. By 2021, he put that dream on hold.
In 2022, after giving a presentation on sobriety and wellness, Howard was approached by two separate “Wellness Centers,” to open his recovery home to their clients who were on the sobriety path. It was a dream come true for Howard, and he finally felt like he had an opportunity to do the work he was meant to do. He quit his day job, he partnered up with both of these centers separately, upgraded his home, bought new furniture, beds, etc. He sold his car and bought a passenger van that would be used to transport these clients to their medical appointments, and the required sobriety classes and meetings. He put all of his heart, soul, money and livelihood into creating this place to serve the needs of people needing help. But, after one week, this bright light in Howard’s world turned dark. The “blanket” licensing that the wellness center supposedly had did not exist. The proper wellness center screening procedures for residents was not done. After one week, the residents were pulled from Howard’s house, and he was never compensated as promised.
He quickly went in search for other, more prepared wellness centers to partner with, but quickly found out that many of these centers were merely storefronts and that the business of placing residents in these homes was highly suspect. He has now discovered that these “wellness centers” are under investigation by the State of Arizona as well as the FBI (See the FBI article linked below). The Phoenix news stations are also running stories on “Native American Wellness Center Human Trafficking Investigation.” Howard is now cooperating and helping law enforcement agencies with their cases.
Needing to cover the mortgage and other bills he converted his home back to an Air B & B, but that took time and could not come close to paying his bills. He got a job as a seasonal employee with a big warehouse company, working graveyard shifts loading boxes onto trucks and requiring heavy-duty physical labor. This still wouldn’t cover his bills. In order to lessen his financial burden, he was forced to sell the passenger van, and he bought an electric scooter to get to and from work.
After getting the scooter and making it to work on Thursday, December 30, the rain came. On his way home, Howard crashed his scooter on the slippery road and completely broke his elbow. He had to have surgery to repair his elbow and will be out of work for 8-10 weeks. Because of the extensive damage to his elbow, he won’t be able to go back to the heavy labor his last job required. He has no transportation, has exhausted his savings and is in real trouble. Throughout all of this he still smiles, still tries to find the positive, sees the kindness of his friends who have helped him in many ways, but Howard could lose everything. He’s not tenured enough for disability, and too young for senior benefits, which leaves him with few resources. This man who is at his happiest when he is helping others, now needs our help.
Organizer
Thomas Hank Brown
Organizer
Phoenix, AZ