Jordan Verdin

“These shoes were given to me by a really good friend who’s pregnant out here on the street. The same chick hit me over the head with a skateboard. The shoes were important because I think she was probably embarrassed by my toenails. I drunkenly tried to paint them, and they looked like talons—ridiculous. I’m not girly, but she gave me the shoes, and we became good friends.

You can’t judge people because of their situation. I encountered a man being ridiculed outside a liquor store because his pants were falling off. He had $400 on him and gave it to me. I helped him by pulling up his pants; in return, he handed me the money. Even though I needed the money at the time, I felt it was a moment where a higher power was guiding me, and I decided to tuck the money back into his pocket. I was thinking, ‘No, he just wants a friend.’ So we went across the street and had a meal together. That’s like walking in somebody else’s shoes.” - Audrey
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What would we say to one another? How would we treat each other if we saw ourselves in the shoes of others? This is just a simple photo idea, and I hope to inspire people to see themselves in the shoes of others, contributing to a more kind world. A mile in my shoes.

My name is Mary. This month, we’ve been on the streets for four years now. In 2020, we ended up in a situation where our landlords wanted to sell their property. So they ended up selling the property, and we couldn’t find anything to rent affordably. We stayed in a motel very briefly until it got too expensive. Currently, I live in my car. It’s not an easy life. It’s hard to get by day by day sometimes. One of my biggest fears was when we found out we were losing the house and couldn’t find anything; that’s one thing I kept saying: I don’t want to be homeless.

Honestly, the one thing I have the biggest issue with is restrooms; there are few places, and many places want you to pay for something to come in and use their restroom. It’s different being a woman in this predicament. We can’t just p*e anywhere. It’s really difficult, especially when no places are open. A lot of the challenge is finding a place to stay for the day, which usually consists of a park or somewhere where we can park where it is legal.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Just because people live in their cars or on the streets, not everyone’s in the same predicament, and not everybody’s going through the same thing. Once you get that judgment aside, your heart will open up more. Smile at somebody and say hi; you don’t know what that person’s going through that day. That smile could be something between them hurting themselves or being depressed and could bring a smile to their face. There’s a lot of that lacking in this world right now. If you can handle homelessness, you can handle anything. It’s been hard, but I still try to keep a smile on my face no matter what. Once we are back up on our feet, I’d like to reach out and help people. And so, I’ve already started making lists of resources and trying to update them when I find updated information about where people can go.
We’re all human; we all need help. We all can support each other.
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If you have any kind words to share with Mary, please do; I will relay them to her when I see her next.