Tucsonans Jeanette Garment, Zion Alderette, Kaya Newberry and Ashely Deal all have one thing in common — they were all once unsheltered.
From the obstacles they overcame, the dreams they have and the work they do through thecity’s Housing First program to help end homelessness, these are their stories.
Content warning: This story mentions difficult topics like homelessness, death and addiction.
When Jeannette Garment’s sober living house unexpectedly closed nearly two years ago, she grabbed her only belongings — two backpacks — and took a bus to a shelter.
On the heels of being six months sober from methamphetamines, Garment feared that the sudden closure could thrust her intorelapse.
Determined to find a solution instead of turning to the streets as she once did, she listened to a close friend who recommended the Wildcat Inn on Oracle Road.
After arriving at the hotel-turned-shelter operated by the City of Tucson’s Housing and Community Development (HCD) Department, Garment's friend went inside to speak with community services manager Allison Chappell.
But Chappell was in a meeting.
Knowing that this could be her opportunity to get off the streets and stay clean, Garment stayed. She waited over two hours for her chance to chat with Chappell.
“I was like, ‘OK, what else am I doing? That's all I have — is time,’” Garment says. “She came out and she talked to me and she heard my story and whatnot. And she's like, ‘Well, I have a room that's empty. But you're gonna have to clean it yourself.’ That was the kickstart that I needed. Because I've never really been one to ask for help, ever. I don't know if it's a pride thing. I don't know. But finally, in the end, I was able to ask for some help and it was given to me. Allison took a chance on me and I did not want to upset her or make her second guess bringing me in.”
Garment stayed as a resident at the Wildcat Inn for several months before getting a temporary job with the city.
It was during her time at the Wildcat Inn that Garment hit her stride. She stayed sober, created meaningful relationships with her colleagues and found her passion in life: helping those who are unsheltered.
Last year was a big year for Garment. She moved into her own apartment and began a permanent role as a housing services agent within the Housing First program of the HCD department.
As a housing services agent,Garment is typically the second person people see during the intake process at shelters. But for her, each day is never the same.
She mostly assists with whatever the Housing First program needs, like guiding newly sheltered individuals through the housing process and running to Sam's Club to pick up snacks for HCD shelters. You can also find her working at the HCD mobile shower trailer or one of the new cooling centers.
“It is a tough job. It's not fun all the time. But in the end, I do know that it's something that the clients need, that we need as a shelter and what we're trying to provide (for the community),” she says.
The tough times are all worth it when she has positive moments with clients, she says. When reflecting on her time with HCD, there’s one moment that stands above all others.
While working at the mobile shower trailer parked at the St. Francis men’s shelter on Fort Lowell Road last year, aman approached the trailer toward the end of their weekly shift.
The crew, including Garment, made sure the man was able to shower before they packed up for the day. Since it was toward the end of their day, they gave him a little more time than the traditional 15-minute time slot.
“He came out of the shower and I was like, ‘Do you feel better?’ He goes, ‘I feel amazing’ and he started to cry,” she says. “I was like, ‘Are you OK?’ And he goes, ‘No, I'm fine. It's just that even a few minutes in the shower makes you feel normal, lets you feel normal.’ And then he said, ‘I'm so glad that you guys were here.’”
“It's just the little things that you see from clients and people that you don't see every day, the gratitude and the appreciation that (we) are there. You don't have to see them every single day, but us being a presence in their life is something that they need, something that they appreciate. And I look forward to having those moments (with them).”
Garment calls working with the local unsheltered community “a humbling experience,” and says the job has lifted a heavy weight from her shoulders.
Now, because of her position, Garment can pay her bills — and even displays a sense of excitement when talking about them, something most people dread discussing or thinking about.
“I get to be the type of person I was always supposed to be, just a responsible adult. Because before, I only worried about myself, I really did. I don't have kids, I don't have a significant other, so I only had to worry about myself. But I can't be that selfish. I really can't. So, I had a lot of weight on my shoulders that I didn't know I was holding,” she says. “And now, I have my apartment, I have car payments, I have two cats, so there’s something I have to care for. I feel like I'm finally getting into the mode of being a regular person.
“I'm always going to be an addict. I'm always going to be in recovery. So, that part is never going to go away, but I don't feel, now, that when I go out into the world that it sticks out like a sore thumb. That's not the first thing people see. When they see me, they don't see a former meth addict walking out. I'm just a normal 40-year-old woman who's going to work every single day with two cats. And I don't care if people call me a crazy cat lady. It's been a journey for sure, but a good one. A very good one. And I'm so glad I asked for help.”
‘We're all human beings, even the ones that don't have homes’
If you asked Garment when she was a child what she wanted to do when she grew up, she probably wouldn’t have said working in human services.
Instead, she would have told you about her love for large animals, specifically horses, and how she eventually wanted to become a veterinarian.
But growing up, Garment moved around a lot. She was born in Okinawa, Japan, moved to the United States with her adoptive parents when she was 3 years old and found herself on the East Coast before moving to California. She was moving around every 2-3 years, she says.
She eventually landed in Tucson but was unsheltered off and on for several years due to addiction.
“Ask me three or four years ago, I would say I don't like this place,” she says. “I wanted to get out but I was in the midst of my addiction then. I've always told my friends and people who would ask: if you can't get sober in the place where you used to use at, then you're not going to get sober anywhere else. Because the thing is, there's drugs and there's alcohol everywhere. So, I think now I'm able to give back to the community I was once a part of and it's one of those things where I never thought I was going to be in that position. But I welcome it now and I love it. I think Tucson is where I'm gonna stay.”
Throughout her bout with addiction, Garment says she would find herself sober for no more than 18 months at a time and only if she ended up getting arrested or placed on probation.
Now, Garment has been clean for over two years — partially due to that fateful decision she made two years ago to seek help at the Wildcat Inn.
Earlier this year, Garment was recognized by Gov. Katie Hobbs for her work and received the Outstanding Achievement in Overcoming Homelessness award from the Arizona Housing Coalition.
Garment says she didn’t realize how much she enjoyed helping others until she got this job, adding that she’d work every single day if they’d let her.
“We want them (clients) to still feel that they're human,” she says. “We're all human beings, even the ones that don't have homes and we just want them to be able to realize we do care. There is someone that cares, as much as they might feel that there isn’t.”
Along with rekindling her passion for people, Garment’s love for horses is something that remains strong as she slowly finds herself getting back into working with them in her free time (when she’s not watching true crime documentaries, that is).
She hopes she can continue helping the unsheltered community find the hope and resources they need during dire times.
“Not everybody is an addict. Not everybody has mental health issues,” she says. “There's some people out there who are dealing with trauma from past, maybe even present, issues and to be able to give someone just a minute of their time, to not assume things and to just ask, a lot of us will answer if you just ask nicely and not be rude about it. So, I think it’s a humbling experience, for sure. And to realize that could be myself again if I'm not careful with how I live my life, it's like, ‘I could be in that spot in a park.’”
Years later, Zion Alderette can still recall the devastation following the loss of his beloved service dog, Charlie.
Charlie was more than a service dog for Alderette. He was a furry companion who was always by his side while Alderette was unsheltered off and on for several years. Charlie was family.
The loss pushed Alderette into a deep depression that left him with an overwhelming sense of guilt and sadness, he says.
But the loss of Charlie, and the depression that followed, was one of the factors that led to Alderette accepting housing resources, getting clean and turning his life around for the better.
“That was one of the things that I quickly realized, that you cannot function like that no matter how hard you try,” he says. “That was not going to get me anywhere. But I felt like I was worthy and deserving and I am so glad that I did go to rehab.”
During his time with Charlie, Alderette would do everything in his power to make sure his companion was taken care of.He would even trade personal items to get dog food if he couldn’t obtain it himself.
After Charlie’s death, Alderette swore he would protect his other dog, Ginger, with everything he had. Whilesitting behind Costco on the city’s east side, Alderette would stay up all night to ensure Ginger was safe.
“I would stay awake all night and then hop on the bus, stay on it for one hour of sleep and then hop on the next one, sleep and then just repeat that cycle for eight hours until I felt like I had gotten enough sleep,” he says. “After that, I had gotten some of the resources that we (HCD) provide.”
If you’re thinking his name sounds familiar, you may remember part of Alderette’s story from our article about theHCD mobile shower trailers, when he shared some of the hurdles he faced while being unsheltered — including not being able to shower for three months straight during the summer.
Similar to Garment’s story, Alderette found himself moving around a lot while growing up. Some places he lived include Phoenix, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana.
Alderette has been on his own since he was 15 and has faced off-and-on homelessness since then. His longest stretch of being consistently unsheltered was for nearly three years.
“I was like, ‘OK, I'm going to stop in Phoenix for a little bit, see what I can do there,’” he says. “I went to the Human Services Campus and I wasn't able to obtain shelter there. So, I tried to go down to LA but I got stuck in Blythe (California). And then I ended up back down in Phoenix and then somehow I ended up back in Texas. It was just literally trying to go to different places, different states, different cities to just obtain these resources that I obtained here.”
When he eventually ended up in Tucson less than five years ago, he remained unsheltered sporadically due to a divorce and a methamphetamine addiction. Alderette didn’t have a set spacein Tucson and would frequently move around the outside of stores, in washes and within the 100-Acre Wood Bike Park.
Alderette started his Housing First journey as a client and worked diligently to get sober and establish housing. When he was no longer a client of the program, he decided to give back as a volunteer.
Almost every week, Alderette volunteers at the Wildcat Inn, Amazon Shelter and local food pantries and even participates in the St. Francis Shelter Community’s Soup Patrol. He also volunteers at the HCD mobile shower trailer and helps organize group arts projects at the shelters.
His volunteer work and kind personality later earned him a spot as an assistant in the city’s housing department.
“It's life-changing because I literally went from sleeping under bridges and tunnels and behind people's businesses out in the desert, literally out in the desert. I've slept in front of businesses when it was snowing down here,” he says. “So to go from that to saying that I am now working with the city, I am now working with individuals that are unsheltered, I am now assisting those individuals to become productive members of society and also help fulfill their dreams that they have — it's mind-blowing. I'm still in disbelief at times.”
Alderette credits Housing First outreach coordinator Justin Hamilton with helping him accept the resources he needed during a dire time in his life. Now, he wants to be that person for the unsheltered community.
“It's been a rollercoaster because I myself had to adjust and I'm still getting my bearings. It's definitely a long process and having a roof over your head is just one step,” he says. “But the effects of it longterm is definitely a journey. So for me, I'm just grateful that I have the ability to do something that one person was able to do for me initially and get me started on that process. And to meet somebody wherever they're at in their little journey, in their journey for stability, it's a blessing.”
“It's not something that everybody can say, that they have that impact on somebody's life. And for me, I know firsthand what it means to have someone believe in you, to have someone say that you're worthy, to have someone say, ‘You can do this and here are the steps and here are the resources.’”
‘Everybody is deserving to live a fulfilling life’
Alderette has dreams of one day becoming a lawyer to help provide fair representation to previously unsheltered people and those with criminal backgrounds.
But these dreams weren’t even a thought when he was a kid. He didn’t think he would make it past the age of 16.
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