By December 2004, Dave had spent more than 15 years of his life incarcerated. But this last round of prison had been different. He’d learned computer-aided drafting and was good at it. The drug treatment program had left him clean, and determined to stay that way. And he had decided to return to the family bread-making business.
“This particular time I had the humility and the acceptance, and the hope — I had all those things,” he says. “I knew where I was, I knew where I’d been. I accepted who I was at the time.”
He started working at the bread store for $10 an hour, mixing loaves and subbing for absent bakers. Finding housing was difficult for Dave, considering his past crimes and his status as an ex-convict. “I lived with my mom at first,” he says. “I wasn’t able to get actual housing — or, my choice of housing, as you’d expect. You think if you have a certain amount of money you can get a certain amount of housing. Well that’s not true with criminals, with ex-cons, if you have a criminal record. Getting housing is very tricky. I was just going to accept whatever housing I could get. Again, I was comparing it to prison. I was like, OK, you can’t throw me in any place worse than I’ve already been. I’m still going to be able to get up and walk outside and go do what I want to do.”
About a year and a half ago, Dave purchased his own home, and his worries about securing housing for himself were over. But the situation remains daunting for countless other ex-cons being released from prison who need to find a place to stay.
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