Thank You for Being a Friend to Homeless People

By Kenneth Payton

Brian Davis has been a blessing to the people of Northeast Ohio for over 20 years. Not just the homeless community, but everyone who he’s crossed paths with, including myself.

The past four years at NEOCH has been a very good experience for me. I appreciate everything he has shown me on the job.  It has been very good for me to learn new skills, different from what I’d been used to doing. Brian has been very patient with me, teaching me how to work with computers, and helping me to sharpen my skills with other office tasks.

I have written stories related about homelessness in general, and helped me document my own experience with homelessness. I have trained vendors to sell The Street Chronicle; helped edit stories for the paper that they’ve written, and helped resolve problems between vendors.

I’ve developed my public speaking skills by working with Street Voices speakers.  This program is for formerly homeless men and women who speak of their experiences at churches, colleges, and schools.  I have helped homeless people register to vote and wrote about my experiences.  I also did work transporting homeless people to the polls on Election Day as well as over to the Homeless Stand Down.

I wish him all the blessings as he goes onward in life. Thank you for being a friend, Brian.  You will be missed.