- [Mark Horvath] Randy.
- Yeah.
- [Mark Horvath] We're here in Eugene, Oregon.
You were telling me about first becoming homeless.
- Oh yes.
I don't know where to begin.
I got married real young.
My first wife passed away.
And then I waited, and then when I was like 40,
I married and I had four step-children.
And I was working oilfield construction,
making about 20, 40 an hour.
Bought a motor home, bought a house,
bought a fixer upper house, you know, all the stuff.
And I worked literally seven days a week 24/7,
tried to keep my wife happy and take care
of my step-children.
After about 10 years, she decided she wasn't happy.
She wanted to leave.
And she left the children with me and after a couple weeks,
I said, you need to take them with you.
By that time she'd already drawed her money
out of the bank, hired a lawyer and then I got served
with papers to vacate my house within 10 days.
The sheriffs came out and within that 10 days
and told me I have to pack up my stuff and leave,
and I started loading up my stereo system
and things like that and he said, "No, no.
"Only your personal effects."
I was only allowed to take my clothes.
And then I load them up in my pickup, in my pickup.
Sheriff came back again and said I couldn't take the pickup
cuz it was in both our names and she had a need for it.
Even though she had a pickup and a car.
So I had to unload the pickup, stuff everything
in a duffel bag and that was it, I hitchhiked out.
With nothing, you know, and I hated God, I hated life,
everything, cuz I did the American dream,
went to church every Sunday, worked hard and everything,
saved my money, was a good citizen, and lost everything,
and just about gave up on life and people and everything,
and just kinda stumbled around and I had no motivation
to work.
So I just...
I got a one-way bus ticket to Portland and I went up there,
my daughter's mother, my biological daughter,
and stayed there four or five months and then
my sister called, I mean my brother called, says,
"Why don't you come to Eugene?"
So I took a one-way bus here.
And struggled for awhile and worked just long enough
to get a van.
Then went up to Fall Creek, camped out for awhile,
and then it was getting really rough.
So I called around, tried to get some assistance,
and it kept referring to St. Vincent de Paul
and Eugene service station, so it was after about
a week or two I was able to take a shower
and get a hot meal and everything, you know.
I said, why don't you volunteer, so I started volunteering,
that kept me...
Getting a little bit of my pride back, so I've been here
the last 10 years and I've just been living from
month to month, week to week, but I'm contented, I'm happy,
I don't have that stress like I had before.
I've come to love it here, and the people too,
because they're always helping each other out.
- [Mark Horvath] You have a motor home you live in,
and you have this awesome garden that you're--
- The motor home was given to me from my landlord,
cuz I was living in my van and it was getting kinda cramped.
And they said, "We got this motor home if you want it."
I said, "Sure."
It actually runs, but don't have the money (mumbles).
So I feel pretty good, I call it home.
- [Mark Horvath] Where would you be if they didn't allow you
to park here and set up?
- Well, Keith knows the answer to that (chuckling).
I used to run around on the street,
park on the street here and there,
for a few days until they'd run me off.
And it got really hard because the gas, even then,
it was hard because my work and my health,
I maybe work one day a week, maybe three, four hours a week
and that's about it, and so that gets me a little gas.
A little odds and ends.
So I get by and if I had to live on the street again,
it would be pretty rough, stressful.
And that's the thing about it (mumbles),
it's a different kind of stress, the survival stress,
from day to day.
- [Mark Horvath] If you had three wishes,
what would they be?
- Well, we have this dream, to own a little piece of land,
so we could bring in at least 10 or 15 of our
closest friends which we call family,
and build us a big garden and have a little co-op garden,
a little small community.
Because there's some people that are really good people,
they've just given up.
They've drowned themselves in alcohol and drugs,
just given up, and all they need is just a little place
to call home at the end of the day, and that's it.
So that's my wish.
- [Mark Horvath] Well thank you very much for talking to me.
- Yeah.
Thank you.