So John, tell me about your vision.
That's a very broad question. Let me perhaps give a little background by saying that
at one point early on in my life when I was single, I was living in my truck. I was homeless.
I had a bachelor's degree in psychology with no direction, nowhere to go. Technically,
I was educated, but I just did not know what to do. Eventually, even after I got married
and had two children, I still didn't know what to do. So I went from job to job to job.
I spent 30 years trying to find my niche until I was at 53 years old. My wife and I decided to help
people who were struggling like us, but even more so. So we opened our house as a homeless shelter.
That led from one thing to another. Eventually, the Department of Correction asked us to have a
shelter for men and women coming from prison. We started Good Samaritan Home as a mentoring
housing program. So to answer your question, I see my vision, and actually a vision for
many people need is the idea of I need a second or third chance, because in my life, I needed eight
chances. So I was at an age where people should have been retiring, and I was starting over.
So at 53, we started with a bedroom in our house, and today we have 19 houses, and we have helped
over 2,500 men and women restart their lives after prison. So I think second chances is my vision for
very broadly for anyone who needs to start over. Wow, I am blown by the numbers.
One fellow told me a parole officer said there's always work in rehabilitation.
Yeah, there is. There's always work, and I am so, I would not say surprised, but I am so
happy to see that there's that amount of people that you would actually be able to help.
There's a lot of people who come on our show, they say we have influenced so many people,
or there's a ripple effect of influencing a lot of people, but actually going and personally
changing someone's life to that many people and affecting that many lives, oh my goodness,
that is amazing. Now to be fair, people ask us, how many people have been rehabilitated, or
what is your recidivism or return to prison rate? And we don't track those things, because it
usually takes three years, and that's beyond our scope. We offer temporary housing. So what my goal
is, is to help somebody temporarily for 90 days, six months, sometimes a year or more,
and in rare cases, we've had people stay with us for 14 years, because of their age, their health,
their finances, but it's based on your situation and your need. And so when I say success, did you
remain stable? Did you stay off your drugs or alcohol? Did you stay out of jail? And sometimes
the low goals are the only goals that are possible, because if you were to say, I would like you to
get a professional job, get an education, get married, become a neighbor in the community,
that may be a wonderful goal, but that may take a whole lifetime.
Instead of saying rehabilitation, I like to use the term habilitation, because many of the people
we deal with don't know basic skills that you and I take for granted, like how to fill out a job
application. Some people have never done that, never. So sometimes we have to go to basics and
say, here's how you even get a checking account. Here's how you write a check,
or here's what a bank card is. This is a debit card. It sounds strange, but if you've been locked
up for 30 years, even the cell phone is a foreign device. You're right. Wow. Yeah, and sometimes when
I realize that if I have been indoors for a week, six or two weeks, and I go outside, the world can
seem very strange. Now imagine being in a six by 12 cell for 20 years, and every day your life is
regimented. So you make no decisions on your own. Suddenly you're put out into the street and they
say, get a job, get an apartment, and don't get in trouble. And you're like, oh, I'm going to
get an apartment and don't get in trouble. What do I do? That's what I call the mentoring part.
And I have some very good staff, many of whom have been to prison themselves, and they can
sympathize with someone else's plight very well. Wow. I can only think so many people that I have
met on the show that are doing something very similar to what you did, not exactly what you're
doing, but very similar. And I think I would love to make an introduction when the times
work for you. I'd love to. I think that'd be great for you guys. As kept to your vision,
though, I'm fascinated. How did you get started into this journey of getting with,
specifically, I know your story of you were homeless and you lived in a truck. And how did
you get started into helping and reaching out to other people and opening your home to other people?
Mostly, I would say to be candid, it was through failures. I had tried several jobs. Some of them
were very good. I was a route driver for a laundry service in Detroit, and I was asked to go into
management, but I quit because I didn't want to go into that sort of work. And I ended up driving
another truck. And at one point I was a fireman, which is a wonderful job for many people. But to
me, it was 95% waiting for the 5% of sheer terror that the fire department does. And so the 95% was
what I couldn't handle, so I quit. So here I am, 25 years old, quitting several good jobs.
And then I decided I'll be my own boss. I will be a building contractor. We ended up moving from
state to state to find work. That's how I got to Texas. And that's very good when there's a boom,
but there's always a bust, in Texas in particular. So our whole life was mercurial. So I said,
I think what I need to do is I need to go back to school, and perhaps I could become a teacher.
And I looked at, at that point, I went back to become a minister thinking I could teach
within the confines and structure of the church. But I'll be quite candid, the church can be very
political. And I didn't fit that well. So I ended up leaving several churches, because I just,
I like to say I wasn't civilized enough. And that's when we decided, well, how can we help
others who are even more uncivilized than I am? Because the idea was if I'm struggling, and I have
a degree, and I have a wife and family, and I don't know where I fit, how about that guy who came to
my door, who's looking for a meal, or looking for a place to sleep, or he's addicted? How can I help
him? And so I thought maybe by helping him, I can find my own direction. And that's exactly what
happened. In helping somebody else, I ended up helping me find my goal. And so that's where we,
we started with no money, sharing our house. And eventually we were able to put together a few
dollars here and a few dollars there. And we had a minor inheritance that we used to buy another
house. And that's when we started to expand and grow. Wow. And there was no salary for
five years. I have to add that. That's amazing. That is, I have so many questions that I can ask
you here, John. Please do. How was that opening up your house to, I don't know if it's a stranger or
not, but someone you know has a capability of hurting you, or there's always that fear factor,
per se. How did you cope that? And how did you get around that?
Truth is, I wouldn't recommend it because when you, the homeless population can be at best unstable,
but ironically, the population coming from prison is more stable in that they have a parole officer
watching and, uh, jurisdicting over them. So we were actually much safer than we were before.
We were actually much safer when we started the house next door because of that wall of separation,
particularly my kids were grown then, but my wife and I had to be very aware because I would not
recommend that you do something like that. I wouldn't recommend I do it again, but we had no
money. We had no choice. We had only a vision and this was the only option at the time.
And I have to add, we were remodeling the house because it's 140 years old. We were remodeling
at the same time we were living in it. And I told my wife I'd have it done in three months and
it took 14 years. You got it done though. Yes. You can see behind me the woodwork. It's supposed to
look like 1879. Wow. Yeah, it looks nice. We're trying to create a feel of calmness here.
Wow. So how, what did you do to sustain your family during that time?
My wife was working at McDonald's. So we got by, but I'll be candid. There were days when it was
a struggle to pay the bills and it wasn't until we finally were able to a contract with the
department of correction and come under their guidance and partner with them as a part of the
housing industry. And not only did it help them provide stable housing for their parolees,
but it also made us more structured and organized and accountable. So I have to make sure that I'm
up to the state standards in my housing and they will. And then obviously that that
oversees my finances too. So we have to be very careful because we're dealing with a lot of
things. And I have to be very careful because we're dealing with a state contract and that
that has made me much more, I say civilized or accountable because of it. And, and be quite
candid. The reputation we have is that it's well respected in the state because we like to treat
the house and our resident as if it's an extension of our faith and not just a business. And, and
I'm not going to be a businessman. I'm going to be a businessman because of my authority,
my higher authority. Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to
Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to
move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention.