This podcast is about Laurel’s journey from Home to homeless and back to living under a roof with her daughter after staying on street for 14 years from age 17 to 31 along with her fight against alcohol and meth addiction. An adopted daughter of a notable & educated family in her area who got heroin in her genes from her addict biological mother and saw the deaths of her two close friends went out into the streets with her bicycle, her dog, and a bike after she came back drunk from a party with her friends and her room was inspected which she felt like a personal attack. She becomes a hobo and stayed beside railway tracks in her hometown for consecutively 7 years while accredited graduated from adult school in 2009 even with her alcohol and methamphetamines addictions. She ate from dumpsters and panhandled with an average income of 20 to 200 dollars. She has got 4 kids in total with the youngest living with her who turned out to be a reason to head back for a normal life.

After charging her husband for domestic violence on new year’s eve and CPC department kept a check on her daughter. After not staying clean after three months of her daughter’s birth the CPC department took away her daughter but she got into a mission for three weeks to get back with her daughter, during those three weeks she got a shelter in slumlord with the help of CCI payments that she used to get due to her polyarticular rheumatoid arthritis disability, she took all the assessment & therapy needed for her. She got her daughter back and her husband started staying with her secretly which led her to have relapses and she couldn’t even inform the police or CPC about it but she managed to get out of it.

She advises people like her to be careful as the people out in the street will make them do bad things to take advantage of them and their crisis in life and never be silent about your suffering, you can reach out to Yakima Valley services so they can help you and you will find the right person one day. In the end, she requested everyone to be a little more gentle to the homeless as it’s not always about money even your gentle look can make their day great.

• Her name is Laurel Robert Winter
• She was homeless from 17 to 31
• She is currently 35 re-entry student and a single mom
• A biological daughter of an addicted mother but no father identity verification.
• An adopted daughter of a notable & educated family
• She went to live in street after coming home drunk and found her room destroyed which she felt was a personal attack.
• She becomes an alcoholic hobo along with meth addiction
• Got pregnant twice with her ex-husband and have 4 kids in total
• She ate from dumpsters and panhandled
• She had polyarticular rheumatoid arthritis disability
• CPC department took away her daughter due to her addiction problem
• She got admitted to the mission for three weeks for rehabilitation and counseling
• She got home from SSI payments, took all the counseling to get custody of her daughter again
• Whereas she requested everyone to be a little more gentle to the homeless as it’s not always about money

• Introduction 0:00 - 1:47
• How it got Started 1:48 - 7:09
• The transition from home to homeless 7:10 - 9:07
• Life as homeless 9:08 - 11:16
• Worst Point and Condition as a homeless 11:17 - 12:24
• Pregnancy as a Homeless 12:25 - 14:09
• From street back to home 14:10 - 20:24
• How did she get off the street 20:25 - 25:25
• How her dealer help her get out 25:25 - 26:59
• Relapses 27:00 - 31:19
• Her advice to anyone like her 31:20 - 35:19
• Anything else than CPC that can help homeless 35:10 - 38:35
• How people can help the...