‘The whole objective the whole time was to get her off the sidewalk,’ says her husband, Max
This periodic column follows Street Roots vendors Max McEntire and Deanna Handley as they seek stability and a place to call home. The following essay is in the words of Max McEntire, as told to reporter Emma Nathanson.
On Feb. 9 of last year, I was leaving town. My drinking had gotten out of control, so I’d given up. I had about $2.50 in my pocket, and I was leaving. I was going to go to Mount Hood and just live as long as I could with what I had and then let it go.
But a rainstorm hit the day I met Deanna, and I had a tarp. All she had was one and a half blankets, two pairs of sweatpants and some hoodies. So I stayed the two days that it was raining — and it was pouring down rain. No way I was hitchhiking up to Mount Hood in the rain.
After the rain ended, we stayed together. I kept selling papers to build up my bankroll and help support Deanna. She didn’t have diapers; she didn’t have a bed pad. Guys living around her were stealing her food stamp cards; she’s lost over $1,100 in food stamps in the last two years. Her other things weren’t showing up either, so there were almost two fights with me and some other people.
Deanna and I, we’ve got 16 years on the street. She’s got six, and I’ve got 10. But she’s been through a lot: Deanna is a double amputee. She lost a half a foot and a third of a leg to frostbite and nobody, absolutely nobody, was helping her. She went to Old Town Clinic to get her diaper changed twice a day. She was going out and panhandling to pay for her cigarettes and her beer. When she’d get her beer, the guys living around her would come over, help her drink it, and not buy her anything in return. And the same thing happened with her little cigars. She was smoking the cheap cigars, because that was all she could afford. And I said, “No, this isn’t right.” I took my tarp, my sleeping bag and my blanket and set up camp with her. And I went back to selling papers.
As we went along — we’re both in our mid-to-late 50s — I said, “Let’s just make a partnership of this, and let’s get you off of the street.” I went out, I started making money, and I got hooked up with Raven Drake (Street Roots Ambassador Program manager) at the office. Raven got us a spot at a C(3)PO camp that the county, the city and other organizations set up.
DIRECTOR'S DESK: Nurturing is Max's superpower; he's focused on keeping his wife warm outside
All I really wanted was to get Deanna in a place that I could leave and go to work and she would still be safe. Because everything was being stolen — my speaker, our chargers. Things were just walking off because she’d go to sleep.
In the middle of March, I said, “Well, if we’re going to make this a partnership, let’s just get married.” And I came down to the Street Roots office and I said, “Hey, how do I get in touch with Pastor Dan?” He’s a street pastor. Andrew (Street Roots' deputy director) told me, “I’m ordained. Why don’t we just do the wedding here?” And Street Roots paid for the whole wedding. Put us in a motel for two nights. Brought us new clothes. They did it up!
A STREET ROOTS WEDDING: Max and Deanna tie the knot
We stayed at the C3PO camp all the way up until about five or six weeks ago when Deanna got approved for an apartment. But in the week before our wedding, our IDs had gotten stolen. Because Deanna had an Oregon ID on file that was current, she got hers back. I’m still waiting on Texas to send me a birth certificate so I can apply for a new one. So until I get that, I’m still outside.
I’m trying to move in with her. I hope they will let me. But for now, we’re doing all right. We got her Social Security started, we got her disability benefits started, and I got her off the street. The whole objective the whole time was to get her off the sidewalk. I’m not worried about me. I can hang on. But being a double amputee, she can’t. You think she’s tougher than she is. That’s how she lost her foot and her leg to frostbite: She couldn’t get inside to change her pants.
They sent her to a nursing home first, but because she was trying so hard to be independent, they marked her as “too independent” and booted her out to a mission. She had a beer, one unopened beer, in the bottom of her bag one night. And they went through her bag and booted her out of the mission for an alcoholic beverage. I don’t know why they went through her bag. If she wasn’t sitting there on the bed drinking her beer, they didn’t have any reason to search her. But they threw her out anyway, and she lost all of the stuff she had in storage there. That’s the situation she was in when I met her. And since then, she’s gotten more clothes than most people. I don’t know how a woman can get so many clothes!
I designed some sweatpant leggings for Deanna so if her diaper leaked or her pad leaked, it wouldn’t get her pants wet. And Kaia (Street Roots' executive director) took the designs home and made them for me. Street Roots has saved our lives this past year. Since the pandemic hit, Street Roots literally saved my and Deanna’s lives.
Max worked on the Street Roots Coronavirus Action Team, now called the Ambassador Program , started when Street Roots vendors sprung into action this past March to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Portland’s houseless communities by delivering hygiene items and information about how to stay safe from the virus.
We handed out kits of medical supplies for the first couple of weeks in the spring, and then the woman that was running security got a flaggers job with some other company. Street Roots put me as security lead, and I stayed with them until they started printing again. Now they’re only working two or three people in the office, so I’m not working as much there.
I’m just going out and trying to sell. Sales are down, way down. People aren’t out as much; they don’t want to risk it. Where I was making $70 to $80 last year. I’m making $25 or $35 now in the same area. But the Venmo policy is working out. I do what I can for Street Roots because they’ve done so much for me. Between Street Roots and JOIN , Deanna wouldn’t be where she’s at. And I probably wouldn’t be here. I would have left.
My main objective was to get Deanna off the sidewalk, and now that it’s done, we’re just gonna go on with our life. I’ll probably start doing a little traveling in Oregon to find a place to work and try to up my income. But if I move in with her, I have to keep our income below a certain amount or they’ll cut her benefits. She can’t have over $2,000 in her account at any time. They will cut her benefits because that’s how Social Security works.
VENDOR PROFILE: Max's plans for an apartment
We’re just surviving; we’re making it. But it’s really nice, the apartment she’s got. JOIN has come through and paid rent a couple of times. They’ve helped us a lot. Big props to Serena (caseworker at JOIN). It usually takes four to five months to get someone into an apartment. She did it in 2 1/2 to three. We went into the interview for Deanna and had the keys that day. And then the Community Warehouse called Deanna on the phone the next day and asked her what furniture she wanted. Serena went and bought groceries, cleaning supplies, a dish strainer, dishes, silverware and an air mattress because we didn’t have anything in the apartment when we moved in. Absolutely nothing. Just the appliances and a bathroom. Serena deserves a lot of credit. Raven introduced us to JOIN, so she deserves just as much credit because she went to bat for us.
Deanna didn’t want to move across the bridge; she wanted to stay on the west side. She wanted to stay close to Old Town Clinic because that’s where she goes to the doctor. When they opened this last camp, I convinced her to go ahead and move in. The guys at the camp grabbed the rakes, the shovels and the brooms, and cleared all the rocks. And we’re talking huge rocks — two rocks would fit in your hand, that’s how big the rocks are.
Deanna is in a wheelchair. Last year, a friend of ours on the street bought a brand new electric wheelchair. He had his old one down in the basement of his apartment in storage. Three weeks after we got married, he said, “C’mon, I got something for you.” And he gave us his electric chair. A $2,500 electric chair and he just gave it to her.
We’ve been blessed by a lot of people and even so, it’s not easy. Not to say it’s been a bed of roses because it hasn’t. But between Street Roots and JOIN, she’s off the street and I’m right behind her. But I can make it. I can go get two or three sleeping bags and be just fine.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots . Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today .
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