About a year ago, I was homeless. I remembered that my job had did a “Team Depot” at Grace Centers of Hope on the corner of Woodward and Perry’s. A guy named Jaguar was running the place back then. I called and had to leave a message for a call back and never got a call back. So, I called my friend that used to work with our ex-mayor, his name is Dewayne Anthony. He was always nice to me. He was a good friend of Jaguars. I don’t know what had happened, but the program that was so good, before had turned into a space for White women and their children. When I did get a call back the women who worked there had the nastiest spirits and attitudes like I had did something to them. I mean just funky and nasty. Thet said they had a program that lasted an entire year. And the program had to be an entire year, no exceptions. I went to the office to speak to a woman, and was met by a man at the door that wouldn’t let me in. He acted like he had seen a ghost. I figured that was from the Oakland County Sherrif Department and they were primping the women out of the “Grace Centers of Hope” or having sex with them. The man who refused to let me in the door was White, too. There was about 20, women with children at the playground and all of them were White, too.
Back when I had come there with Home Depot, there had been several Black women living there, recovering from addiction, working in the kitchen and getting their lives together. I wasn’t on drugs, but I had no place to go. I had no place to live! I left a message that said just that and couldn’t get a call back. The woman that I spoke with I said that I was willing to work the program, but I didn’t need the program that long. I had a masters and If I could just work the program for a month, find housing and a job, that would be all I would need. That wasn’t enough, I needed to need more from them. It seemed I didn’t need enough. I had already got the feeling that I wouldn’t be wanted there, anyway. Most of the White women playing with their children on the playground didn’t even turn to look towards me. I had a vehicle then, I’ve found an apartment, with no help From Grace Centers of Hope. I think they may have thought I was uppity or something. That got me a look, like I was a ghost, again. An Asian woman walked past me and told me she was volunteering. I wasn’t there to help; I needed a place to stay and get on my feet.
I figured the OCSD had reached out and told them that I was some kind of spy or something. I practically begged. I remembered that I had torn their prostitution wide open. The men were having sex with the women; I could tell that when I was there the winter before. The women, especially the young ones only had help and empathy for White women and all their resources were going towards them. For a woman who had done four a White man she known for many years, but sacrificed those years for, that was disheartening. I was a Godly person. Even if he lied on me, I never told a lie on him and always gave my heart to Jesus. Dewayne couldn’t get me in. Jaguar was no longer running things he couldn’t reach out to him, anymore. I was just plain out of luck with Grace Centers of Hope, they weren’t helping “my kind,” anymore. I watched on the news, yesterday, our mayor with a Black woman that was being helped by Grace Centers of Hope. She had a daughter named “Miracle”. Yeah, it took me three (3) months to find my apartment. I bumped around in hotels for a month, spent time living in my car, and time living in Detroit with my nephew and brother-in-law. Thanks to OCSD I stayed on the street, they got me this bed bug infested apartment from a slumlord was my miracle. AMEN…
Look at that, nobody is smiling but Mike! He always smiling...













