When you're homeless your kind of stuck in a rut, between a rock and a hard place, but to suddenly find out there is something amazing waiting for you, something you completely forgot about, it will change your life, it's truly amazing...
Jon Helsinki is 62 years old and has been living in a cardboard box for the last three years next to a bus stop in Tampa, Florida!
He slept often under the shelter there and the bus stop benches there, most people didn't even notice that he was there, he felt completely invisible to everyone.
His identification documents had been stolen from him and it was almost impossible to get new ID's for him as he was from Poland originally and is now all alone in the world!
He had tried to apply for temporary housing at the Florida Community Housing Solutions Center, but again, it was a dead-end because he had no way to prove his identity, so he was refused.
He was really stuck in a rut, a vicious cycle of events that kept going around and around and then back to where he started again.
Charles Inman, a caseworker heard his story and he wanted to help him out. Charles was working with the community health provider DACCO and stepped in to try to do something for him.
Officer Daniel McDonald also helped them, from the Tampa Police Department, they made a good team and were determined to help the guy break the terrible cycle he was stuck in.
Inman said after meeting Helinski for the first time:
"This situation looked really difficult, and I wasn't sure how it was going to end up"
"If it failed, it meant we'd put a 62-year-old man on the street, and Officer McDonald and I were not OK with that"
"John was born in Poland, so it made it even more difficult for him to get new ID ...I helped him out and said, that we will figure this out and get him a bed"
The two men worked with Helinski and got all the identification papers he needed finally...
McDonald said:
"First, I drove him personally to the local tax collector's office, where he was able to get a temporary State of Florida ID card"
With the ID papers, he could finally get his birth record from the US State Consular Affairs department.
Then the pieces started to fall into place, they could get him an appointment with social security and find out about his benefits he used to have.
The big shock was that Helinski had never stopped receiving benefits, they are still getting deposited in his bank!
They then went to the bank and the men saw he had a bank account he had forgotten about, with the social security checks and more!
With his forgotten accounts he was able to move into his very own home, he is now living in the community homes that Inman work for, but all of a sudden his future is a lot happier and assured!
McDonald says:
"He has the money now to move into his own home ...He deserves it. He's a very good, sweet and genuine man."
A huge thanks to these two men who made it all possible for this once homeless guy, they turned his life around and now he has a bright future again!
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