“People are going to have to get fed up.”
Survival and homelessness in rural North Carolina
“I grew up in a nice house close to here. My dad worked at the mill, back when the mill was still here. I went to South End elementary school and later to Reidsville Senior High School. When I say I’m from here, I mean it. Some people say they are from here but they are just here now. Even my grandma has lived here all her life and she’s almost 100.
I left in my twenties because I signed up to fight when we went to war in Iraq. I signed up right out of high school and the next thing I knew I was deployed. I always tell people that I’ve really only been to two places in my life: Iraq and right here. Isn’t that funny? When I was in training at Fort Bragg I went to the beach a few times, but I’ve never even been to South Carolina. You just asked me if I had ever been to Washington, DC. Nope– But I’ve been to damn Iraq!
Right now I live off exit 150. I tell people to “take exit 150” to get to my place. What I don’t tell them is that I live in a tent because I’m homeless.”
Being out here is hard [when you are] down on your luck. There’s no services or no place to go for help. There’s a food bank but it’s pretty far to get to and I don’t always have the gas. A lot of the food you get their has to be cooked and I have no stove! It’s mostly for the elderly people anyway and I don’t want to take their food. There’s no shelter or place to shower. I go to my friend’s houses’ sometimes to do that and clean up but I hate asking.
There’s a lot of homeless people here and everyone is the same. Most of us work– I drive for Uber Eats but it isn’t enough to get a place. Rent is so high you wouldn’t believe it. A single-wide costs twice what I make. There is an apartment I was looking at but I can’t do the deposit if I have to keep paying for gas.
Most people either kill themselves or go to jail or go to Greensboro. They are homeless there too but at least they can get a meal or a shelter bed. But it’s rough down there and dangerous. I’m not quick on my feet no more and I’m not trying to be down there.
People ask why I stay up here but honestly it’s because of my grandma. My parents are dead but she’s alive and if I’m here I can check on her. She has no idea where I live.
It’s not that I don’t want her to know because of pride– I don’t want her to worry! At her age she doesn’t need any more worry. It’s not about pride because I know this isn’t my fault.
Yeah, there are a lot of people [in this situation] out here, more than most people know. I could show you the places.
Like I said, most of us work. Sure, some of us have trouble with drinking– I do– but that isn’t why I’m out here. My mom and dad drank all their lives and they didn’t get put out. It’s that a job doesn’t pay anymore. It barely pays for gas especially if you live out here where nothing is close and you have to drive everywhere. It sure as hell doesn’t pay for a house.
Houses here are selling for 200k that should be half that or less. When I worked for a builder new house where half that. The are real dumps that you’d still have to fix up. I could fix up anything but I can’t save up to buy. Anyone who tells you it’s just about pinching pennies, what do you think I’m doing? I live in a … tent!
Of course people are fed up. When we stop thinking it’s our fault for catching a charge or ticket or drinking… or for being stupid or not having a rich granddaddy, then we are going to be fed up. I do think we have a responsibility– I think it’s our responsibility to say it’s not right!
The people who get themselves elected over and over here are working for the companies. If you look at the website for our county, they say it right there! You can read it: It says right there “Relocate your company here because we have no labor laws and you can pay people dirt cheap.” That’s why you have people living in tents when there are empty houses.
What do I think people can do? Like I said we have to get fed up. I think we should register to vote– Do I need an address for that? I think people like me should march down there and tell them it’s not right. They know it’s not right, but they can put it out of their mind. Maybe if we are in front of them they will have to remember the things they were taught when they were kids. Most of us were raised right.”
The above are excerpts from a conversation with Rob from Rockingham County, North Carolina transcribed by Gwen Frisbie-Fulton of Down Home NC. Interview March 2022.
