“The Power of The Word:” Joe Benson Talks Homelessness, Healthcare, and Frogs in the Jungle

Written by Nick Peoples and Sanika Rane with Joseph Benson

Trigger Warning: Brief references to some violent and disturbing situations which are pervasive in life on the streets. 

Editorial Note: Some names have been changes and some details slightly altered with the express purpose to preserve confidentiality of some individuals named during this live conversation.

Q: Tell us about yourself. 

Well, I’m a Houstonian. Graduated from high-school here in the city. I trained as a chef and lived all over the country working in the food industry. I came back to Houston in ‘89. In 1991, I did a banquet for my mother and had a bad car crash: May the 10th, 1991 at 10:30 pm. 

The reason why I use that date specifically is because at 12 midnight on the 11th of May, mandatory automobile insurance became law in Texas. The guy that caused the crash did not have insurance. Even though I had insurance, I found out that my insurance would only spend “x” amount of dollars before it becomes the responsibility of the person who caused the crash. With Texas being a “Right to Work” state, I could not get compensation through repossession of property such as his 18-wheeler or his house. So even though I got awarded this phenomenal amount of money in court, I ultimately got nothing. The crash caused me to end up in this wheelchair. It eventually caused me to lose my family and my business. The killer part was that I had 25 other people working for me, so this hurt 25 other families also. And I wound up on the streets here in Houston sleeping under the Pierce Elevator bridge. 

Q: That’s quite an introduction. Homelessness really can happen to anyone with the right (or rather – wrong) circumstances. Now, we’re sitting here, having this conversation today because you became a patient of HOMES Clinic. What was your experience having medical students are part of your care team?

It was a blessing because it kept me alive! The osteomyelitis was in my bone marrow. And I was a MRSA carrier back then. MRSA was in my blood. Because of HOMES Clinic I was kept alive. I was ecstatic that I had someone that I could go to. I knew if I put my name on the list the clinic was going to see me and they were going to be happy to see me. And they were going to provide a meal. So that worked out great for me. 

Fast forward years later. My children’s mother had cancer. The doctors were getting ready to do surgery at St. Luke’s Hospital. The surgeon came in: it’s this young lady, and I recognized her instantly. I said, “You were part of HOMES Clinic!” And she confirmed it. I turned to my children’s mom and told her: “You’re in good hands.” I felt really good about that. It was just being able to know that someone so caring was part of the surgical team. The whole operation was a success. 

“[HOMES Clinic] was a blessing because it kept me alive!”

Q: How hard is it to be homeless? 

I once asked an audience of highly educated people, “Why do you think homeless people sleep in the daytime?” And I got all kind of things. “They’re lazy,” someone said. “They’re doped out and alcohol-ed out” chimed another. What people don’t realize is that when you’re homeless, if you don’t sleep in a group with someone overseeing you, women get raped, folks get robbed, and people get killed. Most people walk all night long. In the daytime when we, the general public, are going to school, or church, or work, or shopping, or whatever it is that we do, they sleep on the bus stops or upsides of buildings because they feel safe. If people are walking around no one is going to harm them at that particular time. 

People need to look differently at homelessness. What we consistently fail to realize is that people out on the streets are human. They are somebody’s grandparents, parents, uncle aunt, spouse or ex-spouse. One of the things I found out over the years is that things happen. You can have a medical episode and wind up homeless. That’s what happened to me! Most people, if they lose their job, do not have the funds to last them until they can find their next job and they wind up homeless. Don’t even get me started on how the basic education system has failed our children.

Homelessness is brutal. It negatively affects people in ways they don’t even understand until they’re not homeless anymore. Once you’re not housed and then you’re housed, you can hear the building settling. You can hear the noises. You can hear all the people, even if they’re whispering. People feel guilty because they left their friends and those who helped them survive on the streets are still on the streets. If you weren’t traumatized before becoming homeless, you are by the time you’re finished. We’ve learned that we have to provide an orientation to let them know what to expect.

When I first was housed, I was fortunate to have a balcony. I slept on my balcony for 6 months. Then I moved into my living room with the patio doors open. Eventually I made it to the bedroom – but I still slept on the floor before I slept on the bed. These are the things people have to go through to reacclimate themselves with being housed. There’s nothing easy or “lazy” about it. 

“People need to look differently at homelessness. What we consistently fail to realize is that people out on the streets are human.”

Q: What does it take to help someone re-acclimate to society after such a traumatizing experience, and how did you get your life back after living on the streets? 

When I was working in housing and go visit my clients, they would be sitting in their room looking at the window, the same way they did when they were in jail or the institutions. What pulls them out of this shell is encouraging them to go volunteer, to get out of the house and go do something. The system needs to be changed in order to encourage people to do stuff. Rather than isolating and ostracizing them, I find that if you put them around individuals that are going to school or going to work, that gets them thinking, “maybe I need to do something.” And then they start becoming successful. 

When I was sleeping under the bridge I realized that one of the worst things in America is toxic masculinity. We teach young men that if you have a problem, you’re not supposed to go ask for help. You’re supposed to lace up your bootstraps and solve the problem. But a lot of people need help. And so I wound up sleeping under the bridge for 4.5 years, drugged out. Even though organizations would come and offer to help me, I always turned them down. 

It turns out that my sister knew one of the chefs that SEARCH had in their kitchen. They came looking for me, showered me, and took me in. Then executive chef came out. He took one look at me and said, “he’s in a wheelchair - what is he going to do?” And I told him, “I could do anything you could do. Right now, I can’t walk or run. But you give me a long enough time, and I could do that also.” He said, “Okay. I’m going to let you put water on the tables for the people that we serve lunch to.” I said, “OK.”

Thanksgiving came. SEARCH was getting ready to do a gala and the chef needed someone to help with prep work. We gathered up all these people at a table and he gave us a cutting board and knives and explained that he wanted his onions diced, his peppers julienned, and his garlic minced. While he was still explaining that to other people I just went to work. That became the first time anyone actually asked about my credentials. He said, “I tell you what - I have a culinary program. If you go to my school and graduate, I will help you get housing.” So I went through that program, got the little certificate, and he helped me with housing. Then he hired me to work in his kitchen. They had a catering service called The Company Kitchen, so I helped him with that and eventually I started teaching in the culinary program. 

Eventually I changed the way homeless folks ate back then. They used to only serve one meal a day, but I knew folks needed three square meals a day. So I created a menu, figured out how much it would cost to do three meals, and I showed it to the powers that be. I showed them where we could get the money and that it was a lot more affordable than they had thought. So we started doing three meals a day and for ten solid years I was never home on a holiday. During the summertime I did BBQ. Thanksgiving and Christmas I did Turkey. For New Years, krill! 

Q: That’s an amazing turnaround. You found an opening to use your skills to create a new path for yourself. But you also didn’t stay on the culinary side forever?

Right. One day, SEARCH’s person that was supposed to do interviews for them didn’t show up. Michelle, one of the founders of SEARCH, started panicking. She needed someone to do a speaking engagement. Someone told her, “take Joseph.” So I did it. She listened to how I talk and she said, “You know, I think I want you to be my spokesperson.” Now mind you, I had stuff I had to do in the kitchen. It eventually wound up that I was doing something like 125 speaking engagements a year. And my boss said that certain days I had to be in the kitchen. In the end it worked out and I could do both.  

Around that time, Healthcare for the Homeless-Houston was creating a Consumer Advisory Board. SEARCH recommended me. One of the things that happened when we first created the CAB was that we went through going back and forth with the Executive Board about transportation. They kept telling us that transportation was not a part of healthcare. We explained to them: “No matter how good the healthcare offer is, if people can’t get to you, it’s like not having healthcare at all.” Eventually, they understood what we were talking about. That’s how Project Access got started. 

So now Project Access is going on, and Dr. Buck says I’m going to take you to New Orleans to my conference we are going to go talk about Project Access. This conference led to a series of conversations and connections that resulted in my meeting with Paul Bolden, CEO of Western Regional Advocacy Program (WRAP) and another fellow who worked for Denver Coalition for the Homeless. At one point they said, “You do not need an address to vote in the United States.” I realized the huge significance of that. And that’s when my fire was lit. 

I came back to Houston and spoke with the CEO of HHH, Frances Isbell. Frances listened to what I had to say, and she replied, “Well, Joseph who’s going to run this program? Looks like you’re the person.” So I went and became deputized as a voter register. Every Monday, we would have a table at SEARCH to register homeless individuals, because in the state of Texas, voter registration is a form of identification. Then one day, I get a telephone call: “Joseph, I heard that you are the voter registration guru down in Houston. The National Coalition for the Homeless is getting ready to do a webinar about voter registration, and we want you to represent the council.” It went really well. One thing led to another, and one day I get another call: “Someone put your name in the hat to be on the National Consumer Advisory Board Committee.” I was elected as a member at large for 1 year and then I was re-elected for 2 years consecutively. And then, one day, I get another call - they were asking me to be chairperson. I refused! I told them, “Raymond was my mentor. He should be the chairperson.” But Raymond came to me, sat me down, and said: “I will still mentor you, but you need to be the chair.” So I became the Chair of the National Consumer Advisory Board for four years. 

One day the question was raised: “How can we help other companies hire the people that we rescue from drugs, alcohol, and homelessness?” And the question was put back to us: how can they hire those people if we don’t hire them ourselves? A few months later, we created the Community Health Worker program within the Council across 10 cities. We had a research team evaluate it. If you take and connect a community health worker with an individual that was a frequent flyer of the ER, would it work? Once we were able to get people their SSI and Medicare/Medicaid/gold card and we were able to get them a personal care home and personal care physician. It worked. And now, you have the city of Houston that has the same program that other cities have followed because it does work. It stops people from going to the ER unnecessarily. And that’s a good thing. 

Mr. Benson being honored as a recipient of the Ellen Dailey Consumer Advocate Award at the National Health Care for the Homeless Conference in 2019.

Q: You have a unique vantage point on the situation. If you could change one thing about the world, what would be different? 

That we truly house people. We don’t put them in rooms – we put them in housing. 

Imagine a system where, when a person in an SRO does the right things and earnestly pursues self-rehabilitation, they get a 1-bedroom apartment. If an individual is in an SRO for 1-2 years and they learn how to keep their house clean and open up bank accounts and go work somewhere, then we can get them in a 1-bedroom apartment. It's a play on words to me. They're not room-less. They're homeless. So the ending should be they have a home, not a room. 

When I was on the streets, I ended my prayers by saying that if someone helped me I would stand on that soapbox. My mom would always say, “You have to be careful what you ask for before, because you might get it! And if you get it, then it’s your duty to do what yous said yous was gonna do.” And that’s been my journey. 

Now, I do as much as I can to help the homeless community. To try to reach back and grab someone and bring them up. Take Charlotte. When I met her, she had the clothes on her back and 25 cents in her pocket. Now, she is graduated from University of Houston-Downtown and she has a master’s degree in public health. And she went to China! 

Darrien, she sits on our board. She used to have panic attacks. I saw she was good with a camera. I asked her “how do you feel about traveling?” She said, “I don’t travel.” I was able to get a scholarship for her and she came to with us to a conference. Now she gets paid by the Council to take pictures when they have conferences. She has worked her way from her panic attacks and come today she is starting her first tenure as the Chairperson of the National Consumer Advisory Board. 

Then you have Ms. Stark – she’s up in New York now. When I met her she was pregnant and drugged out. Didn’t have a high school diploma. She went through the GED program, graduated as a social worker, and works as one in NYC. Now her daughter Emily is just outstanding, she’s in the 8th grade. So things are good. 

That’s my perfect world. 

“That we truly house people. We don’t put them in rooms - we put them in housing.”

Q: For people currently experiencing housing instability, what would you say?

Do what the professional trying to help you asks you to do. Because even though the tunnel you are in right now is dim, the more you do the thing these different providers put before you, the light gets brighter and brighter at the end of the tunnel. 

Q: Last question: For people in our community who read this and want to help out, what can they do? 

You have to know the impact of words. See, most people, when they see a homeless individual, they try not to make eye contact. They don’t even mention, “how you doin?” That’s why the homeless community is called the “invisible community.” 

I tell this story – it’s a parable about three frogs walking through the jungle. The three of them fell into this deep hole on day. All the other frogs watched in horror, and they said, “We can’t help you! It’s hot! You might as well just lay down and die.” The first frog became hopeless and discouraged, so he did just that and he passed away. The other two kept jumping. 

The onlookers said again, “You have to give up – please let yourself go peacefully! You can’t get out of there and there is nothing we can do.” Eventually the second one gave up and laid down and so he also died.” The third one kept jumping. The crowd was hysterical at this point. Eventually, the adrenaline swelled up in his veins, his heart started pumping like it never had before – and he jumped out. The spectators all ran over to him. “Didn’t you hear what we said?” He replied, “I’m deaf! I thought you were cheering me on.” 

And that’s the power of the word. Just by saying hello to someone, that might keep them from smoking the crack pipe or doing something that would harm themselves or harm others. We have to recognize other individuals as people and speak to them. Because people that are homeless don’t want to ask you for money. They might just want to know, “How are you doing” so that you can respond back “I’m OK, how are you doing?” You have to know the power of the Word. 

Special thanks to Thomas Herring for technical support filming the live interview.