The Daily Times

Put one of Blount County’s homeless in a crowd of 30 and you probably couldn’t pick him out from the working class.

That’s because for many of them, that’s where they were until recently, making an honest day’s pay while living on the edge between have and have not.

Randall (not his real name) is one of them. He worked for 19 years for a major airline that took him to New York’s JFK International, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and also Dallas-Fort Worth. Then some company changes took place and this East Tennessee man found himself without a job.

He said he stayed in Texas for two more years, working menial jobs before deciding he could do just as well moving back home. He grew up in Greenback and returned in November 2001. “I was gone from here for 31 years,” Randall said. “It was time to come home.”

Getting a job, was of course, his first priority, and he got one as a night auditor for a Knoxville hotel. Randall said he stayed there for six years and at one point was working two jobs, seven days a week.

‘Mobile home’

But in 2007, this twice-divorced 58-year-old said he was jobless again — and homeless. He started living in his car but then it broke down last year, in April. “I told people I had a mobile home until it broke down,” he said as he related his story outside the Blount County Public Library.

His car was his home until Randall was able to obtain a job for room and board. That went on for 13 months, but he said conditions where he lived were horrible at best. Now, he’s back living in his car that’s been parked at an area business for several months. It’s still not running.

Recent nights have been cool but not that comfortable when you sleep inside a vehicle with little breeze. Randal spends his days at public places like the mall and also rides his bicycle around town, putting in applications for jobs. Despite months of getting nowhere, he remains optimistic.

At a recent business seeking employees, he simply told them, “I will work and I can learn.”

Now that he’s back to living in his car, Randall relies on local family like his sister, who allows him to do his laundry and clean up. He said his faith in God supplies him the strength to get by and he isn’t giving up.

Nowhere for men

It seems he is in that group for which little assistance is available.

“There are places for women and children to go in this community but nowhere for homeless men,” Randall said. He said there needs to be help for men like him who want to get their lives back. “A shelter isn’t a bad idea.”

His only support right now are food stamps and the goodness of others. He knows several other homeless individuals who simply caught unlucky breaks like he has. Some of them choose this way of life, he pointed out, and they don’t want a better way. Randall isn’t one of them.

But he said, “I am happy, the happiest person on the planet. I never complain because I know people don’t want to hear it and I don’t, either. I am going to keep a smile on my face and a positive attitude.”

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