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So John, tell me about your vision.

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That's a very broad question. Let me perhaps give a little background by saying that

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at one point early on in my life when I was single, I was living in my truck. I was homeless.

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I had a bachelor's degree in psychology with no direction, nowhere to go. Technically,

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I was educated, but I just did not know what to do. Eventually, even after I got married

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and had two children, I still didn't know what to do. So I went from job to job to job.

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I spent 30 years trying to find my niche until I was at 53 years old. My wife and I decided to help

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people who were struggling like us, but even more so. So we opened our house as a homeless shelter.

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That led from one thing to another. Eventually, the Department of Correction asked us to have a

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shelter for men and women coming from prison. We started Good Samaritan Home as a mentoring

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housing program. So to answer your question, I see my vision, and actually a vision for

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many people need is the idea of I need a second or third chance, because in my life, I needed eight

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chances. So I was at an age where people should have been retiring, and I was starting over.

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So at 53, we started with a bedroom in our house, and today we have 19 houses, and we have helped

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over 2,500 men and women restart their lives after prison. So I think second chances is my vision for

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very broadly for anyone who needs to start over. Wow, I am blown by the numbers.

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One fellow told me a parole officer said there's always work in rehabilitation.

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Yeah, there is. There's always work, and I am so, I would not say surprised, but I am so

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happy to see that there's that amount of people that you would actually be able to help.

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There's a lot of people who come on our show, they say we have influenced so many people,

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or there's a ripple effect of influencing a lot of people, but actually going and personally

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changing someone's life to that many people and affecting that many lives, oh my goodness,

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that is amazing. Now to be fair, people ask us, how many people have been rehabilitated, or

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what is your recidivism or return to prison rate? And we don't track those things, because it

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usually takes three years, and that's beyond our scope. We offer temporary housing. So what my goal

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is, is to help somebody temporarily for 90 days, six months, sometimes a year or more,

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and in rare cases, we've had people stay with us for 14 years, because of their age, their health,

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their finances, but it's based on your situation and your need. And so when I say success, did you

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remain stable? Did you stay off your drugs or alcohol? Did you stay out of jail? And sometimes

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the low goals are the only goals that are possible, because if you were to say, I would like you to

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get a professional job, get an education, get married, become a neighbor in the community,

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that may be a wonderful goal, but that may take a whole lifetime.

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Instead of saying rehabilitation, I like to use the term habilitation, because many of the people

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we deal with don't know basic skills that you and I take for granted, like how to fill out a job

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application. Some people have never done that, never. So sometimes we have to go to basics and

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say, here's how you even get a checking account. Here's how you write a check,

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or here's what a bank card is. This is a debit card. It sounds strange, but if you've been locked

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up for 30 years, even the cell phone is a foreign device. You're right. Wow. Yeah, and sometimes when

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I realize that if I have been indoors for a week, six or two weeks, and I go outside, the world can

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seem very strange. Now imagine being in a six by 12 cell for 20 years, and every day your life is

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regimented. So you make no decisions on your own. Suddenly you're put out into the street and they

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say, get a job, get an apartment, and don't get in trouble. And you're like, oh, I'm going to

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get an apartment and don't get in trouble. What do I do? That's what I call the mentoring part.

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And I have some very good staff, many of whom have been to prison themselves, and they can

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sympathize with someone else's plight very well. Wow. I can only think so many people that I have

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met on the show that are doing something very similar to what you did, not exactly what you're

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doing, but very similar. And I think I would love to make an introduction when the times

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work for you. I'd love to. I think that'd be great for you guys. As kept to your vision,

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though, I'm fascinated. How did you get started into this journey of getting with,

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specifically, I know your story of you were homeless and you lived in a truck. And how did

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you get started into helping and reaching out to other people and opening your home to other people?

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Mostly, I would say to be candid, it was through failures. I had tried several jobs. Some of them

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were very good. I was a route driver for a laundry service in Detroit, and I was asked to go into

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management, but I quit because I didn't want to go into that sort of work. And I ended up driving

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another truck. And at one point I was a fireman, which is a wonderful job for many people. But to

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me, it was 95% waiting for the 5% of sheer terror that the fire department does. And so the 95% was

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what I couldn't handle, so I quit. So here I am, 25 years old, quitting several good jobs.

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And then I decided I'll be my own boss. I will be a building contractor. We ended up moving from

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state to state to find work. That's how I got to Texas. And that's very good when there's a boom,

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but there's always a bust, in Texas in particular. So our whole life was mercurial. So I said,

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I think what I need to do is I need to go back to school, and perhaps I could become a teacher.

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And I looked at, at that point, I went back to become a minister thinking I could teach

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within the confines and structure of the church. But I'll be quite candid, the church can be very

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political. And I didn't fit that well. So I ended up leaving several churches, because I just,

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I like to say I wasn't civilized enough. And that's when we decided, well, how can we help

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others who are even more uncivilized than I am? Because the idea was if I'm struggling, and I have

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a degree, and I have a wife and family, and I don't know where I fit, how about that guy who came to

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my door, who's looking for a meal, or looking for a place to sleep, or he's addicted? How can I help

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him? And so I thought maybe by helping him, I can find my own direction. And that's exactly what

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happened. In helping somebody else, I ended up helping me find my goal. And so that's where we,

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we started with no money, sharing our house. And eventually we were able to put together a few

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dollars here and a few dollars there. And we had a minor inheritance that we used to buy another

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house. And that's when we started to expand and grow. Wow. And there was no salary for

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five years. I have to add that. That's amazing. That is, I have so many questions that I can ask

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you here, John. Please do. How was that opening up your house to, I don't know if it's a stranger or

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not, but someone you know has a capability of hurting you, or there's always that fear factor,

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per se. How did you cope that? And how did you get around that?

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Truth is, I wouldn't recommend it because when you, the homeless population can be at best unstable,

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but ironically, the population coming from prison is more stable in that they have a parole officer

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watching and, uh, jurisdicting over them. So we were actually much safer than we were before.

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We were actually much safer when we started the house next door because of that wall of separation,

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particularly my kids were grown then, but my wife and I had to be very aware because I would not

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recommend that you do something like that. I wouldn't recommend I do it again, but we had no

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money. We had no choice. We had only a vision and this was the only option at the time.

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And I have to add, we were remodeling the house because it's 140 years old. We were remodeling

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at the same time we were living in it. And I told my wife I'd have it done in three months and

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it took 14 years. You got it done though. Yes. You can see behind me the woodwork. It's supposed to

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look like 1879. Wow. Yeah, it looks nice. We're trying to create a feel of calmness here.

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Wow. So how, what did you do to sustain your family during that time?

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My wife was working at McDonald's. So we got by, but I'll be candid. There were days when it was

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a struggle to pay the bills and it wasn't until we finally were able to a contract with the

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department of correction and come under their guidance and partner with them as a part of the

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housing industry. And not only did it help them provide stable housing for their parolees,

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but it also made us more structured and organized and accountable. So I have to make sure that I'm

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up to the state standards in my housing and they will. And then obviously that that

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oversees my finances too. So we have to be very careful because we're dealing with a lot of

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things. And I have to be very careful because we're dealing with a state contract and that

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that has made me much more, I say civilized or accountable because of it. And, and be quite

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candid. The reputation we have is that it's well respected in the state because we like to treat

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the house and our resident as if it's an extension of our faith and not just a business. And, and

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the state can beıll say what it wants and if it's the earth between our hearts and our

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mind in the world has been horrible how you to deal with the

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bodies, maybe we should give the eben in city as looking at things we think are the truth find

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So as the

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have

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