Rex Hohlbein 0:03

Hello, everyone, the We need You now episodes are a quick call out for all of us to step forward when direct and immediate action is needed for someone struggling in our community. It's a call to action. The episodes are typically less than 15 minutes, being short and to the point just enough to let all of us know the situation and what is needed. We hope to build a network of like minded folks who want to get involved and help their neighbors in times of need. We believe this is what a healthy community looks like. In this episode, you'll hear from Daniel first I gotta say, it's really nice meeting you pleasure. It's easy to see your demand right off the bat. So I'm really happy that I'm getting to know you.

Daniel 0:49

I'm glad that whoever it was. I don't even remember his name that gave me your gave me the phone to talk to you. Yeah, I think Robert Robert Yeah. Robert. Oh,

Rex Hohlbein 0:59

so, Daniel, do you first tell us who you are.

Daniel 1:03

My name is Daniel Sagan.

Rex Hohlbein 1:05

Daniel and his partner Nicole, along with their 18 month old son had been living in a hen provided apartment in the university district in Seattle. Hen stands for housing and essential needs. The funding for their housing was stopped. And as of last Monday, they had to move out. Daniel and Nicole were stressed to say the least, and unfortunately got into an argument that had them splitting up. They had been together for five years. Daniel is crushed. He loves her greatly. Along with his partner being gone. Daniel and his son are now homeless for the last week without a bed. They have been couchsurfing and staying in open all night restaurants. Last night they stayed in a tent. In addition to caring for his son, Daniel has spent the week calling and visiting service providers looking for housing. With no disrespect to the nonprofits, Mary's Place reach and others. They have been unable to find him shelter. Just so you know a little bit about Daniel. He's had a hard life. For most of it while living in California. It included drugs, gangs and jail. When he found out his partner was pregnant. He knew instantly he had to change his life. For him. It all came together when his son was born. When he cut the umbilical cord, he decided to quit all drugs and vowed to make something of himself to give his son an example of a better life. A year and a half later, he is still making good on that promise.

Daniel 2:41

I've been in Washington state for about since 2016 been homeless since 2017. And that's there's people with you.

Rex Hohlbein 2:51

Where'd you grow up?

Daniel 2:52

California? Orange County.

Rex Hohlbein 2:53

Nice.

Daniel 2:56

Oh, my mom, because my mom lives out here. Okay. Yeah. And, and I'm pretty much I was take care of her. But my mom had a heart animism and they stopped the oxygen in her brain. So she had kind of like, went into a coma for a while. And after that after she got out of the coma. She slowly she is slowly getting better and better and better. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's

Rex Hohlbein 3:19

doing good now.

Daniel 3:20

Yeah, she's better. Yeah, she's she's my uncle in Bonney Lake and stuff. So it's all good.

Rex Hohlbein 3:24

Yeah. So also, I'm gonna say to the recording here that Daniels not only juggling the interview, he's juggling his 18 month old child.

Daniel 3:35

Yes. Come on, boy. So

Rex Hohlbein 3:41

how was your childhood?

Daniel 3:42

We're constantly moving from like motel motel. Your mom and dad. Yeah, no, Dad, just mom. Mom took care of me. Yeah, she was a cocktail waitress bartender. She did everything she could to struggle being a single mother, because she loves my real dad because he's to beat beat beat her and hit her and stuff like that. So you got she got smart and got

Rex Hohlbein 4:03

violence. And yeah, I saw that growing up. No, no, I

Daniel 4:06

was I was like, 10 months old when she left. So I don't remember. How old are you? Oh, I'm 4444

Rex Hohlbein 4:11

Did you have a job when you're in California? No,

Daniel 4:13

no, no job, no job. So I was I was incarcerated and stuff for drugs and for sales of drugs and possession of drugs. I did most of them live in California. Since I was juvenile. And up I was going in and out of juvenile hall and going to prison when I got older. And I just pretty much was doing bad. Awful. Yeah, I thought that was the lifestyle like a revolving door thing. Yeah. And then I met somebody which is his mom. And she showed me how to live life out here in the real world. Like how to enjoy things. Yeah. Appreciate what straight narrow path Yeah, and I appreciate her more than anything in the world. And but for showing you how, what, what what I can do with myself and she she believed in me thinking I could become a better man.

Rex Hohlbein 4:59

I asked you Annual what he thought contributed to his path towards drugs and gangs pretty much

Daniel 5:04

just because when I was younger, I the other older crowd, I thought that was cool. They had the tattoos and they were cool. And they were, they were gang members. And it was just I thought that was cool. And I wanted to do that. And then when that comes, when that comes that comes with things that you do will get you in trouble. You know, I mean, yeah, like stupid, stupid decisions that you make as a youngster. And then it just once you're in the system, it's pretty much yeah, it starts becoming a norm to you. Yeah. Once you get that out of your head, and in some bin, you can you can meet him probably most likely get your head out of that. Norm. Yeah, and become a new norm. Daniel's

Rex Hohlbein 5:47

girlfriend's name is Nicole. I asked him how they met and what happened. I

Daniel 5:52

mean, Nicole is doesn't 18 And she she showed me that she was gonna be she says she's come pick me up from the gate from jail every time I got in and out. And then she would she was just take my phone calls like, she wanted to show me that like, She's not going anywhere. Yeah. Do you still have a house and she used to have car payment mortgage and she taught me how to tie all that stuff to car payment insurance and what things I need to know about your life learn the ropes, learn the ropes. Yeah. She ended up being pregnant with him. Yeah, yeah, he we had him November 27. The tooth 21. And

Rex Hohlbein 6:30

he's beautiful. But yeah, thank you. Just smiles the whole time.

Daniel 6:34

Thank you. Yeah. So we were we were living in a car in her car. And she moved out she was pregnant. That's when I quit doing everything. Like I I just told her look, I'm I'm doing

Rex Hohlbein 6:46

when you sit by everything you mean drugs? Yeah. drugs, crime or drugs,

Daniel 6:50

drugs, crime, everything. Yeah. So I, I bid tooth and nail I bit bit down on my tongue. It's hard when when you're a man, it's hard for a man not to provide for his loved one. Or for whoever's with him. You know, for me, this is I don't know about anybody else. But for me it is. And so being sober and being and not being able to hustle. As I like to say hustle was hard, but I did it. Because that's all I know is how to hustle. And are you still clean? Yes. It's hard, but I'm pleased. But I believe so hard to you. It's just one day at a time though. It's right. Okay. I can see it in your face. Yeah. Well, you hold your son. Yeah, I love I love my boy. This is my this is my world, man. Yeah.

Rex Hohlbein 7:36

So tell me what happened with Nicole that went south because we sounds like she was a really positive force in your life.

Daniel 7:41

I don't know. I don't know. I can't call it because I'm not her. But I know for my fact is like, I will still take her in. I love her. And I still take her in and everything. But she just wasn't ready for having. She never wanted kids. She never wanted the whole family thing. She just wanted to just go roadtripping like, we went to Utah when she took me to Utah. She took me up Powell Lake. She she wanted to she want to experience life skill. Yeah. And she's young. She's 30. She's 38 now. So she's young. And she has a full time work. No, no, she didn't have full time work. No, she. She used to work at Safeway for 10 years. And she was daily manager. Well, that plays get her dirty. And she just was like, not having it. So.

Rex Hohlbein 8:24

So basically, she said, Hey, I can't do this kid thing anymore. You take them or you were having

Daniel 8:30

was working. So the end of this month of April came up, and we had to be out of our apartment. Okay, and part of the agreement was if we get everything out of the apartment, they'll give us each $1,000 and a good reference saying that would get us out of our lease. Because we our lease was up, but they made a sign another lease. And we're doing month to month. I see. Yeah.

Rex Hohlbein 8:54

And how did you have the apartment you bought? You both aren't working?

Daniel 8:57

No we have when you're on the hand probably Yeah, we were on the I got her on the Hebrew I showed my hat for you got the hat or you got the hat.

Rex Hohlbein 9:13

You want to put it on me?

Daniel 9:18

Yeah, Riley boy.

Rex Hohlbein 9:20

Yeah. So let's see. So they basically they want to buy you out of your lease. Yeah, so they did. And and they gave you 1000 each.

Daniel 9:27

No, they haven't given us nothing yet. They haven't gave me nothing yet. That's why I'm still here at these apartments.

Rex Hohlbein 9:31

And that's just the friends that are crashing couchsurfing. Yeah

Daniel 9:33

couchsurfing couchsurfing because I can't I can't have a 22 month old on the street all night. It's not going to happen. There's a there's a there's a little Mexican restaurant right here down here that I that I'll take him there open 24 hours and they don't mind me sitting there and unless you crash there, I'm not gonna crash. I'd be hit all night there. I'll watch him stay warm and then I'll stay up you know. Yeah.

Rex Hohlbein 9:55

So Daniel, one question I have right off here. Have you been in hand for a while? Do you have a disability or what? Why are you in hand? Oh, because

Daniel 10:05

I have like, over the years of drug use and and other things I have been in prison, I have have a lot of post traumatic stress because I don't like to be around big crowds.

Rex Hohlbein 10:16

Daniel wants to work but due to his PTSD, he has not found the right fit that would allow him to avoid crowds and the resulting anxiety. his criminal record also makes it extremely hard to find employment. And on top of that, he has a back injury due to a car accident that happened years ago, when his son was born, the disability payments he was getting were replaced with TANF which stands for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Problem is the assistance is not enough to pay the rent. When the lease on their apartment ran out. And they needed to vacate. The management company offered them $1,000 each. If they moved out on time. Daniel has yet to receive that money. And he doesn't think Nicole has either. So

Daniel 11:04

we're out when we're moved. We're moved out. We're moved out. Right and it's Monday. Okay, it's the first and we ain't got nowhere to go. I know. I have every once a week free stay at the tree lit up. So I said okay, yeah, to live. They give me a free free state once a week, and a play. So I told him, I made a reservation. So there we go. There's our room for for Monday. Yeah. Okay, for Tuesday, and then Tuesday. So I was my plan was to come back here at the apartments and go get my check. You see what I'm saying? Okay, that way with a check, we can go get a motel and we can do all the errands that we can it could we she owns a car. So we can do our errands and go to this basic offices that we need to to get to try to get a roof over your head. Yeah, well, still in that 600. Like they said the $600 You know, we get from for benefits came up missing out of the ATM. When she went to go ATM, the money came on, it was gone. She's turned around and blamed me for it. And I was like, I didn't take your money.

Rex Hohlbein 12:10

The theft of benefits that Daniel spoke about is a known occurrence in the homeless community. Daniel filed a police report but none of that will help him at this time.

Daniel 12:19

The things that we went through when we when we got we got clean, sober. We got we got we did it. We got anyway. I mean, then we relapse, but then we got clean and sober again. It's like, we went through the mud. And then we got out of it together. benzamide got out of it. We always we always we always seem to conquer when we're at their lowest. And I just don't resist. Maybe it's just beside over, man. I don't know. I feel I don't know what the right words to say to her. I don't know I don't. And she says just listen to her. Just listen does what she wants me to do is listen. Yes.

Rex Hohlbein 12:51

It sounds great. And also, you didn't ask for advice. But I would say keep loving your son. Oh, yeah. The best you can do is first Yeah. And, and if it's meant to be it is going to come around, right? Because that is the most beautiful thing you can do. And what you're doing exactly. So okay, so right now, you guys haven't talked? No,

Daniel 13:13

we haven't talked since she left? No, we haven't talked. No, we we even we emailed once, and she wanted to come see him. And I said no problem three o'clock. From our apartments. And no show. She do drugs. No, she's just the more she's clean. She's clean, sober. Yeah. Okay,

Rex Hohlbein 13:32

so, first of all, Daniel, thank you for sharing that quick snapshot. Yeah, but so now since you've got your son, tell me about the services you've looked for. Because when I listened to you talk earlier, I gotta say, like, with an 18 month old son, you seem like you would be you won't be tripping into, like, all of the vulnerable kind of classifications are saying we I get this man help. Right. And so tell me what's happened? Well, in this week,

Daniel 14:06

okay. So when I went to go get TANF replaced on for our son, and being charged of that, so I can get good data. So I don't have access to the card. But now I do because now he's on it. He's on my TANF and everything. So that's one of them. So the resources was 10 up and 10th is the money, the money and food stamps boost up to 500 and your cash goes up to 600. Yeah, so Okay, cool. Let's do it. All right, so, okay, I'm still homeless. So what do we do about that? Well, all my benefits don't kick in until June 1, because we already got our benefits for this month. Well, my benefits got stolen. So

Rex Hohlbein 14:44

now so talk about housing. So here you want to basically your only goal right now is you need a roof over your head for your child,

Daniel 14:52

right? But hopefully they get to Section eight and get get a house because section eight your house is cheaper and Yeah, I want to I want my son to grow up in a house. Go to school out here. I don't want I'm not gonna go back to California because in California he's gonna need to grow up to become a gang member in prison or, or most likely, just I'm not anywhere. So that's not good up here in Washington state you guys have good schools it's a lot more slower. It's just easier up here to deal with with with the child that lives on there because you there's I mean, you guys have gangs but there's not as they're not there's not gangs not compared to me. I know again, yeah. Yeah, you guys have no idea what things so I was supposed to be getting food. And by the by June now and my food stamps. What good does that do me for right now? You know. I just want to get things done correctly. This is done for Sunday. This is the first shot I was actually seen born. Yeah, snip this beautiful cord been there for him every day. And it's to not have that a roof over his head is killing me. It's killing me. I know I can get all that stuff. If I went back to my whole life, you know, I mean, but I can also not give it in lose two lives myself and he is by me going to jail. Being in this situation is not easy. But at the same time, hold on. Hold on. Hold on, baby. Please, please. been in a situation. It's not I got a I got an idea for you. We want to prove it.

So being in a situation is not easy. But if I can do if I can, if I can just keep myself on the straight line. And I take the neural I take an arrow up you're right and you'll be alright. But if I was to take that neural road, I already know what that is. It's not going to be easy, but it's not gonna be hard neither. Okay. Why? I'm just I just gotta get it done. And I got, they told me that they told me not to.

Rex Hohlbein 17:17

At this point in our talk, Daniel ran off chasing after his son in the park. Daniel is holding it together, but just barely. He is grieving the loss of his partner, caring for his 18 month old son and looking to have their basic needs met, all while living homeless. As he said he could take care of those needs by going back to what he knows a life of hustling on the street, one that will eventually land him back in jail. He knows he doesn't want that for himself or his son. This is where we all can jump in to help him through this difficult time. You know me now we'd like to raise funds for a one week hotel stay. While Daniel secures housing, you can Venmo funds to at you know me now. Please list Daniel in your donation. We have included a direct link in the show notes. No funds will be used by you know me now. If for whatever reason Daniel does not use all the funds, they will go to someone else struggling with homelessness. You know me now is produced, written and edited by Tomas Vernadsky. And me Rex Holbein. We would like to thank Daniel for taking the time to speak with us. You know me now has a Facebook and Instagram page where you can join in on the conversation. We also have a website at WWW dot you know me now.com Where you can see photos of Daniel and his son. We also have stories of other folks we feel you should get to know a heartfelt thank you for listening