The beautiful Mr. Hyde
January 25st 2023 - By Rex Hohlbein
For those of you that got to know the beautiful Mr. Steven Hyde, I am very sorry to say he has passed away. I just heard the sad news. I don't know yet when he died, it was at least several months ago.
Steve lived homeless for 20 years at Gas Works Park. I met him in 2011 and he quickly became a dear friend to many folks in the Facing Homelessness community. In February of 2014 he received housing. It was an unbelievable moment for him, beyond his most beautiful hopes!
Steve had a number of 'almost got inside' moments through those 20 years. When we was told early 2014 that he was up for housing, he refused to believe it. About two weeks before his move-in-date Steve was coming to my architecture office every day, sometimes two or three times a day, pacing back and forth saying, "It's not going to happen, I just know it. My guess is they mixed it up, they told me I have housing but I'm sure I don't, I'm sure they told the wrong Steve. I just know it."
He was so wound up I finally called his case-manager out of worry for him. She said, "Nope, he's wrong, we got the right Steve, he's going to be moving inside!" She even had the date and the address to give me. Without Steve knowing it, I made a post on the Facing Homelessness page asking people to send letters to him, welcoming him to his new home. Several days after he moved in, Steve came to the office to tell this story.
He said, "The second day in my place I realized I had a mailbox key on my key chain so I went down to the lobby to check it out. When I opened the mailbox it was jammed full of letters so I just closed it assuming they had given me the wrong key. As I was heading to the manager's office it occurred to me that they would probably need to know whose key they had given me so I went back to find a name on an envelope. When I opened the box and pulled a letter out it had my name on it, which didn't make any sense. I just put it back in and pulled another one out. When that one had my name on it my brain was spinning, it felt like I was having a stroke. I pulled them all out and everyone of them had my name on it. I put my back against the wall, slid down to the floor, and started to cry uncontrollably, it had been 20 years since anybody and written to me."
I don't know the details of Steve's life. What I do know is how he carried himself day to day, through so much struggle. He was a gentle, kind, and extremely humble man. Everyone loved him.
You are a BEAUTIFUL person Steve and we are all going to miss you dearly. Sending LOVE to you for your next journey. RIP my friend.
A June 2015 post I made on the Facing Homelessness page - trueFRIENDSHIP:
About sixteen months ago Steve Hyde got into housing, he had lived 20 years homeless in Seattle, often at Gas Works Park, getting inside could not have happened to a nicer man.
After posting about the goodGOOD news of Steve getting an apartment, the kind folks in the Homeless in Seattle community brought Steve home furnishings, lots of stuff that filled his new home. It was such a beautiful thing, so much LOVE.
To catch you up to NOW, a few weeks ago Steve was in a terrible biking accident, went down hard, broke 3 ribs which punctured his lung sack, which was filled with blood, he's veryVERY lucky to be alive.
His true&longtime friend Connie Sproul, friends since their teens, who's now living in Oregon, came up to live with Steve for a few weeks to help him recover, she's an angel, so much kindness.
The day Steve got his apartment key! The JOY coming off of him was beyondBEAUTIFUL!!!
House warming gifts for Steve from the Facing Homelessness community. Steve was overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness. I know it touched his heart to have so much outpouring of LOVE for him.
"It's not going to happen, I just know it. My guess is they mixed it up, they told me I have housing but I'm sure I don't, I'm sure they told the wrong Steve. I just know it."
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