Milestones seem to mark Shorty’s life. Born in New York in 1945 with a father in the Army, his family moved around a lot. He spent his own time in the Army from 1962-1963: “too late for the Korean War and just before the Vietnam War, but I was a foot soldier nonetheless.”
He would prefer not to speak in 
great detail of the lengthy “gap of negativity” that bothered and followed him from Columbus to Dayton and into homelessness. But he is not ashamed to say that he was one of the first clients served by The Other Place, “an original member,” back in 1988.
Since then, he recalls the milestones with pride. As this story is written in 2006, Shorty is celebrating 10 years of clean living through “self determination.” He also credits his wonderful case manager, Tina, who is now Executive Director. In 1995, Tina linked Shorty to many services he was entitled to at the VA. A couple years later, Tina helped Shorty into subsidized housing. In fact, he still lives in that very same apartment, which he refers to as “home sweet home.”
A job program at the VA led to successful independent employment in the community. He likes to share his original Employee of the Month certificates and Commendable Service citations to prove it.
Unfortunately, health problems caught up to him in the form of two strokes and forced him out of the job market. While he now struggles with vision and walking, he is still sharp and maintains his housing, takes care of his bills, and keeps in touch with Homefull. He has even served as an Advisory Board member. Most important, he remains an active member of our community and for that milestone, we should all be proud.
At 60 years old, Shorty is an avid sports fan. He retains and recites a tremendous amount of sports trivia. So, what is he looking forward to? The Steelers winning the Superbowl, of course!