Ron and Destiny became homeless when Ron borrowed a car from a friend that didn’t have insurance on it.
He says he was pulled over and ticketed for the lack of the insurance, and his commercial driving license was suspended for three months. Living paycheck to paycheck, Ron and Destiny soon became homeless.
“Life was really good before all of this,” Ron said. “I mean, I’m 38 years old. I've been driving trucks for over 20 years. If it wasn't for me losing my license, I really don't think I would have lost our house and everything, because the money would have still been coming in.”
June 2017: Ron and Destiny are resting in the sleeper cab of a semi-truck owned by his employer. Destiny is 19 weeks pregnant. The couple previously bounced around for three months between houses where people took them in briefly, but those living arrangements aren’t without problems. Ron says he’s had situations arise when he would return from an errand and find his belongings ransacked.
“Life being homeless, it ain’t all that,” Ron said. “I mean, you got to worry about where your stuff’s at, whether or not your friends are true friends or if they’re going to go through it and steal it. It’s hard being able to trust anybody out here.”
Ron said they turned to local agencies for help, but he claims many of the places he went to wouldn’t help because he isn’t the biological father of Destiny’s child, and he and Destiny don’t have marital status. Ron continued to look for a job until he could get back to truck driving with no success.
June 2017: After jumping from one house to another of friends and relatives, Ron and Destiny still don’t have a place of their own but now can stay in his employer’s semi-truck. Ron returned to work recently, but there’s a 3-week waiting period before he gets his first paycheck. “My boss requires a three-week hold back on the first pay check for paperwork reasons.”
“We’re basically down to our last $6 now, and I have got a week to go before I get paid. Most of our food's gone, because we ended up leaving our food we bought with food stamps up in Macomb for our daughter. That’s hurting us, because we don't have nothing now, but we made sure our daughter was provided for,” Ron said.
June 2017: Ron and Destiny are at the Horizons Soup Kitchen with Destiny’s baby niece. Ron and Destiny rely on the lunch meals served there Monday through Friday to survive. Destiny’s 18-month-old daughter is living with her parents in Macomb while the couple struggles with homelessness. “We feel it’s a better, stable environment, for Destiny’s daughter until we can get back on our feet,” Ron said.