PSS Roman Becerra Receives Section 8 Housing!

Roman Becerra is a Peer Support Specialist for MHAAO’s EVOLVE program in Clackamas County. On January 12th, 2020, he and his family got their keys to their new home with a Section 8 Voucher. The following blog post is transcribed from an interview with Roman on February 4th, 2020, in which he discusses his recovery, coming full circle from experiencing homelessness to getting the keys to his new home.  

Roman Becerra is pictured above standing in front of his new home with his wife, Renee Susanne Becerra, and his two sons, David Eugene Becerra (age 7), and Jacob Tivelle Becerra (age 3).

Housing Instability

My childhood dream was “the American dream:” a house and a family. I never really had stability growing up. We moved all over the place. My mother tried so hard to get a father figure for us, but she was looking in the wrong places and she wasn’t taking care of herself, and in turn wasn’t taking care of my sister and I in the long run. Looking back at where I was, it’s going to be 20 years since my mom passed. She passed in 1999, and by 2000 I was homeless and strung out on crack. I had been homeless a couple of times before, but this was the big one. 

In 2001, I got into this program in LA, the Cardinal Manning Center run by St Vincent de Paul of Los Angeles. It was a 6 month program that helped you get on your feet. While I was there, I got a job working at Staples. My paycheck went to the program and they gave me an allowance. With their help, I saved up money and then transferred from my job at Staples to move to Ventura, California to try to start a new life for myself. 

The Longest Walk 2

While I was living in Ventura, I heard about The Longest Walk 2, which was a Native American spiritual walk from San Francisco to Washington DC. The walk was the second of its kind and was held on the 30th anniversary of the first walk. The message of the walk was “All life is sacred. Save mother earth.” We started walking in February of 2008. At the time, I did it because it was something for me to do. I felt aimless. I had been trying to create a new life, but I kept on falling into the same patterns. That walk was the beginning of my recovery from life in general, having scored high on the ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences). I learned a lot and still learn a lot from that walk. It helped me get focused. 

There were a lot of good things that came from the walk and a lot of healing for everyone, and of course there were a lot of challenges that surrounded the walk. I believe we were all able to learn from that as well. You can learn from conflict, so the bad medicine ends up being good medicine because you make it good medicine. There was an elder who joined us on the walk. He kept a fire burning all the time, wherever we went. At night, we would have a prayer circle and throw the tobacco into the fire, releasing the smoke and the prayers up to Creator. That helped me through that a lot. 

The walk taught me that it’s not just about me. It helped me mend a lot of the relationship with my sister as well. We’ve worked on that for years and we still work on it. The walk helped me to listen to the universe. I’m able to hear the voices of our ancestors and learn from them. Listening helps me to understand my own path. If you have a need or want something in your life, then you think it, you feel it, you say it, and you put it out to the universe. The universe will answer, maybe not in the way you want, but it will answer. I learned that if the universe points you in a direction, follow it. If you’ve been asking for something and something just happens, that’s not coincidence.

There were hundreds that started the walk. In the end, 19 of us completed the whole walk from San Francisco to Washington DC, which wrapped up in July of 2008. I was one of them and my friend was one of them, who was living in Portland at the time. He was like, “Come up to Portland, I’ll pay your bus ticket, you can stay with me until you get back on your feet,” and that’s exactly what happened. 

I moved to Portland in October of 2008 and ended up meeting my wife a year later. We got married and had a couple of kids. Now it’s going on 10 years that we’ve been married, on October 24th of 2020, and we just got a new house with the Section 8 voucher. Coming full circle from being homeless and not really having a purpose, I believe my sobriety and recovery revolves around my family. I have a purpose there. And now I have a house and family. My dream has been fulfilled. It feels very surreal.

Roman pictured with his wife on their wedding day on October 24th, 2010.

Roman’s sons pictured enjoying their new patio.

Section 8 Housing

In 2014, my wife and I got on the waiting list for the Stephen’s Creek Crossing housing project and we got selected. In order to live there, one of the adults had to be a part of the GOALS Program, so I joined. It allowed me to go back to school and get my GED and change my career path. I also ended up getting my license and a car. The last year of the GOALS Program, you have to be off TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and be working. It’s a self-sufficiency sort of thing. I was already working towards that, but breaking it down and creating a better life for my family and myself was good. It really helped me. I feel blessed.

I was in the Stephens Creek Crossing housing project when Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) took over the property. When that happened, we had to sign new leases, but they also offered us an opportunity to sign up for Section 8 housing, and when it opened up, we would be at the top of the list. So that’s what happened. Just this last year, we got selected, but it was sort of a fight because we were only approved for a two bedroom. That wasn’t going to work because both of my sons are on the autism spectrum. So, we got a note from their primary care doctor saying that my sons needed separate bedrooms. This qualified us for a 3-bedroom house. We just got the keys on January 12th! The house is beautiful, and we’re thinking about having a house warming party in the summer so we can have a barbeque.

I was talking with my wife beforehand and my sister. I told them that I didn’t feel like I deserved this, especially coming from my background. The whole scope of American culture says that if you come from a poor background or if your skin is darker, or if you’re ethnically different from what we believe should be the cream of the crop, you don’t qualify. So it took me awhile so wrap my head around why I didn’t feel worthy. Eventually, I had to say you know what, I’ve got to own this. This is who I am. Now that I have arrived, it feels so strange to be where I want to be. It’s scary and it feels good at the same time. My sister tells me to be in the moment and allow it to happen. My wife and I keep telling each other “I love this house!” We have a washer and dryer downstairs. I’m going to put a pool table in there too! 

Roman pictured with his sister, Bobbie Becerra.

Career Change

When I was going to get my GED as part of the GOALS Program, I was thinking about what I wanted to do. One of my long-term friends had just gotten out of prison and I was talking to him and asking him what he was going to do. He said he was thinking about going to school to be a Drug and Alcohol Counselor and I was like, “That’s what I want to do.” When I was receiving assistance through St Vincent de Paul, it always stuck in the back of my mind that I wanted to help people who were in the same situation that I was. So after I got my GED, I enrolled in the Alcohol and Drug counseling program at Portland Community College (PCC). 

I changed my life-path. When I decided I wanted to do drug and alcohol counseling, I decided to quit drinking. I wasn’t really using other drugs at that time. My recovery birthday is 9/11/2014. I’ve had over 5 years now. They say 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, a year, and 5 years are the big benchmarks. With 90 days, you start feeling stable, you get some focus, but then you can drop really quickly. If you’ve reached 5 years, you’re more likely to make it longer. 

I was in my practicum when I found out about the peer support job at MHAAO, and I already had my CRM. I realized the reason I wanted to be in this field was to help people on a personal level. That’s exactly what this job offered. It’s in my nature to say, “Hey, you’re going through this right now. Well, that reminds me of this incident from my life, and here’s how I got through it.” That’s what I do in the field here, and it feels really good to find work that fits my nature. 

My life experiences help me a lot in the field. I work with a lot of people who have children in Child Welfare care, and I help them make good with themselves and get their kids back, which helps me a lot too. I helped one peer who was homeless and couch surfing get approved for Section 8 housing. He said he wanted to give me something in return, so he offered to teach me how to play guitar. Another peer I’m working with also just got his Section 8 voucher yesterday, and he’s really excited. I can hear it in his voice, and now I can speak to that too, because I’ve been there and experienced that upgrade in my life and I’m glad that I can help people reach that level. I know that my peers need that help and it feels really good to give back in that way.