@galefilterphotography

From the ❤️: “good trouble” imagery, a moment with Joan and Mike. “We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” wrote Joan Didion in her 1979 essay collection, “The White Album.” Mike is 44 years old and has been homeless 5 Years. I offered to buy Mike a cup of coffee for a couple of photos in front JEKs’ @jeks_nc Joan Didion mural in Midtown. In the early 1970s Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, collaborated for the first time writing the screenplay for the film Panic in Needle Park (1971). The film is set among homeless drug addicts in New York City and introduced audiences to the actor Al Pacino. Didion and Dunne’s work on the film was most favorable. The couple became one of Hollywood’s most sought-after screenwriting teams. Fifty years after Panic in Needle Park we are still dealing with homeless substance abuse. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 38% of homeless people are alcohol dependent. 26% of people without a home are dependent on other addictive drugs. A survey conducted by the United States Conference of Mayors asked 25 cities to share the top reasons for homelessness in their region. 68% of mayors reported that substance abuse was the number one reason for homelessness among single adults. Everyone has a name. Everyone has a story. Everybody counts or nobody counts. “Sooner or later we all discover that kindness is the only strength there is,” Father Greg Boyle. Through acts of kindness we can make the world a better place. Thanks Mike, Jeks and Joan. #mercypedalers #loavesfishes #encounterchurch_sacramento #showupsac #sacramento #California #photojournalism #streetphotography #streetlife #kindness #survival #homeless #gratitude #socialjustice #poverty #streetportrait #environment #compassion #hope #love #hunger #hardtimes #justice #mercy #916 #jeks_nc