HASA Apartment

    I got really lucky when I moved to NYC. Here, there is a lot of resources to help the poor and needy. There is a specific program that I qualified for due to my HIV status. HASA assists individuals living with AIDS or HIV. With HASA they helped me also to apply for my emergency housing to get me off the streets. Because of my status, I got placed in a SRO. SRO stands for Single Room Occupancy. So what that means is that I would have my own room with a bed, but with restrooms shared with the rest of the residents. At the same time, I got approved for public assistance. I got food stamps and even cash benefits to help me out. 

    Here is the thing. the food stamps were great. I haven't been able to have a stable meal schedule for a few years now. This helped me so much to begin to gain back some weight I lost due to my meth addiction and being malnourished from living on the streets. But, the cash assistance is a different story. If I was sober, this would have been great to have so I could pay for a cellphone again and maybe even get some clothes. I had other plans. Every two weeks, This money went straight to drugs. Most of it. The rest was spent on cigarettes.

    Now that I had a room though, I went all out with my appearance on Zoom. I created signs for the wall. Neon art all around the walls. Music activated light where cheap on Amazon, so I splurged and bought some lights for my room. Now every time I would log onto Zoom, which was daily for hours on end, days at a time; I would glow and stand out even more.

    Also, I could spend time doing other things that I thought would be fun to tweak out with. I started to DJ in the Zoom rooms, well by DJ I mean play music for the room by pushing buttons. This was so much fun. People even appreciated my taste to music that I played. Win. 

    I stayed in this SRO for a year. I eventually got contacted by my HASA Case Manager, that I was to come get interviewed for an apartment. For two hours, I had to sit and tell my story about how I got to where I was. Share all of me. It was difficult. But I did it and got accepted.

    Now this new housing is called a congregant apartment. They layout for mine was more like a dorm. I shared my bathroom with my neighbor, and each floor has a community kitchen. There was in house Case Managers. A small group of Social Workers who are here to help with those that need help.

    Once again, I went all out on my room with decorations for Zoom again.

    After a year here, my using hadn't gotten any better. It got worse. A 8 Ball of meth (3.5 grams) would only last me a few days. And that was all I was able to get. Every two weeks. So I would get my money and immediately spend it on drugs that would be gone in 2 or 3 days. Then for the rest of the time until I got my money again was spent watching TV alone and sleeping and eating. This insanity had to stop. This scheduling of my drugs, the mental anguish and trauma that I suffered due to the effects of the drug, it began to get to be too much for me to handle.

    So, I got in contact with a friend from the building who I knew that was in recovery. I asked her to take me to a meeting. My last day of using Crystal Meth was November 23, 2022.