Episode 1: Leigh Lincoln - Homeless advocate & author

How do people become homeless?  It may not be what you think.   Join us as we listen to Leigh Lincoln, homeless advocate and author, describing the cause of homelessness, and how we could help comfort those in need.

Subscribe to Hello World! on YouTube to receive instant notification whenever a new episode or bonus content is released.

Transcript

would you like to share with our audience um your your perspective on the homeless Community who are they well the the biggest myth out there is that they're a bunch of drunk or mentally ill people it's addicts um and those type of individuals which in fact is not the case

[Music] well welcome to hello worldly we're so glad you're able to join us to share your story I'm glad to be here today that's awesome well Lee I heard that you have um basically dedicated 30 plus years in serving the homeless can you share with us what what you do um in serving the homeless well I've done various things over the years I've worked at soup kitchens homeless shelters I've helped people get off the streets and into their first homes um I've worked with Community Development I've done various committee Works um trying to get people into various jobs I've worked with programs to help young people understand finances understand where they need to go with their careers so they won't end up being in poverty so I've kind of done it all been there done that got that t-shirt kind of a thing yes well 30 years she had a lot of time to um I guess follow through the whole spectrum of possibilities for for this community what do you think um I think we there's always stigma or misconceptions about the homeless population can you share with us because you've probably seen all types that comes from all sorts of situations would you like to share with our audience um your your perspective on the homeless Community who are they well the the biggest myth out there is that there are a bunch of drunk or mentally ill people it's addicts um and those type of individuals which in fact is not the case um yes I'm not denying that some homeless people are addicts or mentally ill I'm not saying that's not the case but that's not typically a driving factor in what pushes people into homelessness there are a lot of single mothers who are sleeping in cars or hotels um a lot of times because of domestic violence situations um I've even met a doctor once who was out on the streets a doctor literally because he had so much debt from going to medical school and he just he couldn't afford an apartment and pay for his debts so it could be literally anyone I've seen people with meta medical bills that you know they had a heart attack and their insurance covered half of it and then they ended up evicted from their apartment because they couldn't afford everything anymore so I often say you never know it could be you next week literally it could be you immensely and right now with inflation this is more true than ever yes yes and times are tough and um I think your message it could be it could be any one of us strong well you know I also he you know see that they're sleeping under the bridge or they're um they call it what panhandling on the streets and I hear people say why don't they just go to the shelter why don't they go um to the places I guess offering services why don't they well a lot of them feel that there's stigma and shame attached to it and they won't reach out for help um however part of that is because people aren't willing to go where they are and talk to them and meet them and and sit down and have a conversation with them and if and if you go to where they're at and have a conversation then they are much more likely to come in and get help but you have to be willing to go to them and not expect them to come to you because there are a various various reasons why they've ended up in the street in the first place and then there's a lot of Shame attached to whatever that reason is and then they don't know how we talk about what's called the slow slide into homelessness where one little inciting thing becomes another thing becomes another thing and then they spiral and somewhere along the spiral they don't know how to stop the spiral and then they end up at the bottom and then they don't know how to get out yes and they did and again this this goes into a lot of Shame and yeah and once they're in the bottom this is where a lot of times addiction comes in where I said that isn't the driving factor that put them on the streets but it becomes a driving Factor once they're on the streets and yeah which compounds the problem and so then they don't know who to reach out to they're ashamed to reach out because then they hit rock bottom and now they're drinking or doing drugs and then it's just this whole can of worms yeah it's a vicious vicious cycle and I've seen this I've seen this I don't know how many times but it but you know Jesus went out to the masses he did not expect them to come to him amen he wins he went he went repeatedly he did not sit in the synagogue at all I preach is there an incident even once in the Bible of Jesus talking to people in the synagogue other than tipping over the tables is there right except for well no there I I take that back there is him when he was a child yelling at the yelling at the rubber right but yeah okay but again he went to the masses he fed them and then he talked to them right this is what we're supposed to be doing and it's not just the homeless it's everyone this is what we're supposed to be doing we need to go where they are we need to have a conversation and figure out what their problem is what their issue is and how best to help them I think taking that first step to go to them will be the hardest one um what was it like for you for you when you I guess you know that they'll probably would have been years ago when you stepped out to talk to them even as a woman um you know there's always concern about safety and things like that it's how would you um encourage those who might have concerns well I would say don't go alone number one rule never go by yourself um you know find a find a group who is willing to go with you and just sit in a park or uh you know in under a bridge where they're at and bring water bring snacks bring sandwiches and have a conversation and just don't try to push anything just figure out where they are and and there are there are groups out there that are that do this on a regular basis um I know there's a group in my local town that does this um there they they do Street feeds and they go where people are and provide food and and then they start the conversation and and just you know not through the resources right yes I think yeah and so you know find a group like that in your own community and if there isn't one find a way to start one that's because because there's got to be people out there who are willing to do the work if you just just say hey we need to do this in our town so first to educate yourself about the stigma and if you have any biases to to educate yourself and hopefully others and I think you're being on the show and trying to shed a light is going to be helpful um and then take action and meet them where they're at is what I'm hearing say yeah because again um there's a lot of studies out there that say that once people are in homelessness they don't reach out at all they don't and you know people literally starve to death freeze to death every year that are homeless because they don't reach out and and that's a shame and it shouldn't be happening in America but it does yeah so yeah and then and then like I say you see situations in in Texas in Los Angeles in New York where there's this organ where there's huge huge tent cities and there's a there's a variety of reasons for these issues at this point but a lot of it is because people are screaming about the problem not trying to fix the problem yes just complaining it's not going to solve it exactly so you've been at this for 30 plus years there's there's obviously in the way you speak about it even today is still full of passion um so what inspired you to start working with the homeless really it was the way I was raised um I'm adopted and so my parents were just these loving giving people because they just gave my brother and my sister and I at home and so for my parents giving was everything um and so to me it just seemed normal to give everything you have to others um and what a great room my parents yeah my parents are just beautiful amazing people and I just saw that lived out every day because of them and so a lot of people are like you have such a giving heart and I'm like because that's what I saw modeled wow that that's a that's something for us as parents um to be mindful because kids are watching they're watching what we do and what we believe in what we hold true um and that certainly is such an amazing story that your parents not only adopted I guess all all the siblings you have yes I have all of us were adopted and we were all Chosen and that is a very different relationship than when you have children um you know it it's a very special relationship because my parents made it very clear they picked us we were wanted beyond anything um and each of us was special because of that and it um it's hard to describe exactly the relationship we had because of that it's a very different relationship yeah and I have a very special relationship with my son um but I gave birth to him so it's a different relationship and and I've seen it you know I love my son dearly I'm not saying that I'm just saying it's a different relationship it's a different connection it's a different Bond sure it's it's borne out of different circumstances and I love that you say I was chosen I was chosen to to be in their family and that feels special they could have picked anyone but they picked me yep oh that's that's what that's special well see that's why you have you have such a multi-faceted story of just being adopted um not just being adopted but being adopted in a family that that just sounded like love you and your siblings deeply and not only that they loved everyone else deeply in in such way that they're serving them and then you because of your mindset of service and how did you encounter the homeless as a way where you want to dedicate I guess good part of your life in helping them yeah it just it just kind of came naturally to me um As I Grew Older I just saw so much need and this just seemed to click to me and that just there were so many people out there in need and as a single woman I knew I couldn't adopt a child back in the day you can now but back then you couldn't so this just seemed natural to me that there was just I could do this I I could just jump in here this was a way I could help others and I I never looked back I just never really even thought that you know there was something better I could do with my life I guess I it just yeah that's that's fantastic so 30 years later you you know you are um a warrior in in the homeless because anyone who can do something you know consistently for 30 years for a particular cause um is is already a an accomplishment in my opinion right but now you have a whole you have a whole nother um uh I guess role or title you are a published author and you um in in your background we're currently seeing um one or two books but that you have a four book series I like to know or if you can share with our audience how did you get into writing um because it's it doesn't seem like something um that just go alongside of you know serving the homeless at the park over the soup kitchen and things like that how did this happen uh it was an accident isn't all good things that sometimes come through accidents nothing's playing like that yeah um so there I was for a lot of years doing all of this various work and um I was at this this community meeting one night which was normal for me I went to a lot of committees and Community meetings and but I was at this particular meeting and the topic was really interesting to me and I had something to say but the guy just ignored me he was paying attention to the politician in the room the businessman in the room all these other people in the room and I was getting really frustrated because I've been working on this committee for years I'd been doing this work for years and all of these people were just kind of there right and a lot of them

even think about more than one or two of these meetings right and I was just really getting frustrated so at the end of the meeting I approached the person who was running the meeting to try to speak to him privately and he he just gave me a bunch of excuses why he didn't want to hear what I had to say I was just a woman I was just a single mom I'd just been a volunteer uh just whatever he just listed a bunch of reasons and and I just left that meeting just feeling like I was invisible I was a nobody I wasn't important and it would have taken him less time to listen to me than his excuses and I was just so frustrated I bet I went home yeah I bet that's very frustrating yeah and I realized that this was kind of normal a lot of people did this to me and so I went home and I started journaling out my frustrations and I did this night after night after night just putting pen to paper and I just I just I just hit a point you know I was a middle-aged clunky woman I just hit this point I'm like I'm done I'm done being ignored right and I realized after several months that at some point what I was writing had flipped from being about me to being the first person perspective of a homeless woman accidentally written a novel well okay now what do I do oh hold on so you were writing venting frustration which is very good thing to do versus acting out so so you were journaling and you were journaling and about yourself and then you flipped characters wow totally flipped characters had no idea when I did that or why I did it but somewhere along the way that's what I did so so you end up with a body of work that has started with you and then you moved to a homeless character a homeless character okay and then what happened after that so I found a writer's group and I took it to them cleaned it up a little bit took it to an editor cleaned it up a little bit more still pretty hot mess as well yeah I had no training in anything right part of my problem no education we're all good never mind so I'm just like okay I'll throw it out to the universe

it's not great I understand this also a few copies maybe change some hearts and Minds there's somebody for charity good copy so here's the trick I publish it and I went from being ignored to being an expert literally overnight oh yes once you publish you are you're it yeah and so all of a sudden you're being asked to speak and home on homelessness issues I yeah just like wait what

so you so people saw your publishing and you've been invited to was it conferences or is yeah conferences at churches at various places and it was just like I don't understand why why would you pay attention to me all of a sudden all right yeah it was just um so I was like okay we're just gonna ride this way for as long as it lasts right I figured six months down the road no well a year in I've sold more than a hundred thousand copies I'm like okay wow this is a thing so I see that you now have a series so tell us about this and I I really like the word uh the the series titled Broken Road um it just speaks so much with two words in in in you know just from my perspective of besides talking about the homeless you know even our personal roads as you're talking you you you're you're being ignored and you're not being recognized and you're row forward as a community leader in this area was seem a little bit broken because you're not even being recognized so it seems like it's a wrote for every everyone could be on this broken road and not just the homelessness right so but tell us about your your four four books um your series what are what's the each book um cover right so each book um is I called the series broken roads because each life is a broken road that only Christ can fix oh my and so each book has a different character that's on a physical spiritual and emotional Journey so um so Road home again is about a homeless woman who shares her story and discovers home just isn't what she thought it was uh road to Freedom is about a man who's dying of cancer and he's an immigrant and he's just lived everywhere and before he dies you want to kind he kind of wants to fix all his mistakes and things kind of go wrong there and then finding the railroad is about a woman who just has this horrible marriage and she finally divorces the guy and discovers she was just doing all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons her entire life and then my newest one the road West is about an elderly woman who when she was younger she almost had an affair and now she's discovering that she's old that that little mistake caused guilt not only in her own life but it had a whole bunch of Ripple effects in other lives as well wow well I think the the ideas just keep flowing so now that you are a publish author and you're selling on Amazon and your first book sold 100 000 copies Plus how has that impact you personally well I I've totally changed I used to be this messy little person in the corner and I'm not anymore I I'm out there um I I am on podcasts and occasionally the radio and uh and I travel all the time partially to research for my books and I'm just living my best life and I'm having more fun than I ever thought and the best thing though is I have this huge platform and I get to tell people my viewpoint and I get to inspire others and I'm just loving that because yeah okay I don't care if you end up writing a book but figure out what your passion is and where you can use your heart your mind your soul and go for it because everyone has something to give and for so long I think I didn't realize how much I had to give and I have so much more than I ever thought I did and I'm just having so much fun just just the world is so big and I'm just loving it and a lot of people are like wait you're over 50 and I'm like who cares that's right who cares age is just a number I feel like you're you're you're feeling um like you're you're stepping out of a box yourself maybe maybe not so much um the gentleman at the the community meeting may have put you in sometimes we put ourselves in a box thinking this is all I could do and I think you were given a blessing of of this new platform and you're really seeing seeing all that is is still still within you to to continue to to give what's next

um I have a fifth novel that will hopefully be coming out later this year uh and I'm super excited it's a brand new series and yeah it's it's gonna be really personal to me um it is on adoption so yeah wow super excited so great so you're you're now branching to another topic very near and dear to your heart and there's there are so many I personally know so many adoption adoptive families um and oh wow I can't wait to to share that with the group maybe you can come on our pack podcast next time to talk about just the adoption by itself um very interesting because um the the new series the first book will be from the birth father's perspective and uh and I I'm just having so much fun writing it um just his whole journey um from getting his girlfriend pregnant to what happened after um and yeah it's it's just been a fun book to write it's going to be really emotional for people to read um but I'm just I'm just enjoying writing it and and when I started writing it I hadn't met my birth father yet um and in the middle of writing it I found my birth father and was able to meet him so uh so that's been kind of a interesting whole little side note to this journey that's amazing um when you found your birth father wow what was going through your mind what was the what was that first encounter like I don't know who was more nervous him or me um it was yeah um but we just kind of looked at each other and then he just swallowed me up in this giant hug and I knew everything was going to be okay so oh that is awesome so was he is he part of your um consultant to your your book your series your new series uh a little bit but um I didn't want to tell his story I didn't think that was fair so uh but uh but I did talk to him about it but yeah um but it was just an amazing gift to be able to meet him I I was afraid it was too late how long ago did you meet him uh just a couple months ago wow this is brand brand new fresh wow and I can't understand why you say could be too late because there's always life expectancy right the issue of of where people are in their life Journey wow what a blessing to have been able to do that yeah congratulations actually yeah yeah it was yeah it was it was a wonderful gift and it was a gift not just for me but for him because there were so many issues surrounding

my birth that he needed to come to terms with I see yeah so it was a gift all the way around healing for everyone wow yeah that's awesome I'm so I was really happy for you this is it's tough I'm sure in in your your adoptive family were supportive yes yes it's fantastic all right well so back to back to how we can you know your your news your good news your story um about how you are sharing uh your time and your effort to help with the homeless population how can because we're a video podcast and we're reaching out how can others come alongside um how can they get involved especially the one that are still a little wary about um I don't know this population I don't know what to do what can we do I again it all goes back to being in your community and finding Connections in your community and I know right now a lot of people feel like they're really disconnected from their Community a lot of people don't know their neighbors a lot of people aren't sure they want to know their neighbors um but there are so many ways to get connected locally in your community and I encourage everyone just to start building those Community connections and trying to find ways to work locally because that's that's how we need to fix this problem is starting in our neighborhoods and starting with our neighbors and then working out that's right um so what are some practical ways for people to do that because you know I don't even see my neighbors um hardly ever it's and I mean Texas is so hot so I can understand that but um people don't get out so how would they connect with their neighbors or their Community well there's some there's some great apps that you could use to connect without leaving your house if you want to start there because again this is about starting where you're comfortable right yes so yeah so there are Facebook groups that are local to your community there's uh the next door app yes that is local to your community so start where you're comfortable and work from there and both of those have groups that meet online and then they meet offline as well and so you can start with things that are online and then work outwards so start where you're comfortable and go from there perfect so it's kind of like we gotta meet each other where we're at just like you how you talked about we have to meet the homeless Community where they're at um where people are just not going to um uh show up unless um we're comfortable right so that's that's that will that's very helpful to share and what a great way to use the Facebook groups and pages and in next door to I think you mentioned in our previous call before about finding things that connect us not what divide us so we can use those apps to find Solutions versus complaining about the HOA right exactly yes there are there are all kinds of events and things on both of those apps and on other apps as well but we don't utilize those to their full extent yes um and we need to because there are great ways to connect with people in your neighborhood on on all kinds of apps but we don't we choose to use those to complain that's unfortunately most of the time so so we're wrapping up with our conversation and I would just like to ask you why would you like to come on podcasts or radio stations wherever you are to share your story why would you like to do that and what do you want to ultimately share with everyone well I just I just want to encourage everyone just just to find what is their passion what they can use their voice for and just go do it don't be afraid and and if it's homelessness great if it's writing a book great I don't care if it's if it's cleaning the neighborhood up I don't care what it is you'll figure out what their thing is and do it we can all make the world a better place but we won't do it if we don't try and there are so many people that just never try they're like oh I can't do that but you can and I I'm living this every day now and I'm trying to encourage more people to um figure out what your passion is and go live it okay go live it and go do it don't just plan it and think about it but just go do it and and I think another encouraging thing is um you know your your book book platform didn't come the first year you started serving so it could come later so you just never know what doors will be open in in I think when you saw that you have this manuscript for your book you didn't just sit on it you did something with it so that is that is so awesome so how can how can our um viewers find you our audience find you the best way is on my website Lee Lincoln author.com that's

l-e-i-g-h-lincolnauthor.com yeah it's still funny I know very good and your books are on Amazon if people are interested um they can search you on your book on your by your author name yes yeah yeah and um they're also available on my website so okay perfect all right well thank you so much for joining us and just sharing your story and like I said it's multifaceted and you have a lot of good news and thank you for sharing your time and effort to serve the homeless community and inspiring us to know that we can to work and help others and that's um and then also another big one for me is that follow your passion and and follow your voice and let it take you um it may take you more than what you can never imagine so thank you so much thanks for having me and that brings us to the end of another exciting episode of hello world please support our podcast by hitting the Subscribe button also don't forget to smash that like your likes will help our podcast reach more awesome people like you lastly tap that notification Bell to receive instant alert whenever we drop in a new episode we can't wait to see you again on our next episode until then keep on being a positive force in this world