Support Jayson's Journey to Self-Sufficiency

Need immediate help shelter a place to stay that is safe. Jayson has been unable to find a safe place and has been in a very dangerous shelter where he has had a knife pulled on him and well it is not safe. If anyone has a place he can stay short term that would be amazing or the ability to help with a cheap motel.

Have a friend (Jayson Szymaszek) who is homeless and recently tried to find shelter with the snowpocalypse we were experiencing. He told me a little about the experience. He was able to couch surf through the cold spell but was kicked out of the last place two days ago and has not found a place to stay. On the positive side, he had his first day of employment today at a store in Belton. We are hoping to get him a temporary place to stay and then either an apartment or even a private room in a house, pretty much anything safe with a place to sleep and shower.

The big goal is to help him get self-sufficient with transportation so that eventually he will be able to reunite with his family.

A little back story.

He has been homeless for the past 18 months or so. It's not that he doesn't want to work; he has had a couple of jobs, but with no transportation and not having a permanent place to sleep or clean up, it's been hard to hold a job. He has been separated from his family, and he was also taking care of his mother, who was on disability and couldn't take care of herself. When his wife left, he was forced to help take care of his mother, and the restaurant where he worked laid off most of the staff and closed soon after. He had to figure out how to take care of his mother, and she went into a nursing center, and he lost the apartment. He was living in his car until it was in an accident.

So, back to the original story, he tried to get into a religious homeless shelter. He had to reduce his personal property down to what would fit into a packing tote. He didn't have much to begin with, but he had to pitch much of his winter survival goods. This handcuffed him to the shelter. If he leaves during the winter, he has to start all over. The shelter was a bit like a prison in that you had to go through metal detectors and a pat-down and three security doors. Thirty men in a single dorm room. It was a religious entity, so the participants were required to go to classes and were told they could not get a job. My friend's goal is to gain employment and find permanent safe housing. I would have thought the shelter would want those same outcomes, but it seems they are more interested in indoctrinating the homeless. The shelter told my friend that if he doesn't comply with any of the stipulations, he would be kicked out with only the limited gear he now has. He ended up leaving the shelter. He reached out to me, and I did what I could yesterday to help him. He had already found a friend's couch he could stay on for the time being. Now he also has a phone with unlimited minutes and data. He had a government phone, but it has limited minutes and limited data. When you are looking for employment, you need access to the Internet and the ability to answer a phone if an employer calls. That is something that most of us wouldn't think about.

Safe place to stay

Transportation

Communication