Help for the homeless Tony finds his way home

Help for the homeless Tony finds his way home
An innovative program is getting many of the city’s mentally ill off the streets and into a new life
By DAWN HINSHAW - dhinshaw@thestate.com
When Jeremy McCleery took a job 1½ years ago doing outreach at the Homeless Recovery Center, his mission was to help Tony.

Among the hundreds of anonymous homeless people who wander Columbia’s streets, Tony was different.

A slight Vietnamese man with a broad brown face, Tony slumbered on benches along Devine Street or walked the streets downtown with his clothes bundled under his shirt, his long matted hair stuffed into a stocking cap.

Many people came to recognize Tony during his 15 years on the streets, but no one knew him.

He was calm and silent, never asking for anything, often refusing the money or food that well-meaning people held out to him, saying, “I’m OK, I’m OK.”

Because of his silence, stories grew up around Tony — legends, really — that he was royalty, that he fled his homeland in fear for his life.

As a social work student at USC, McCleery saw Tony around town and wondered about him, too.

“He’d been around for so long, and no one had helped him,” he said. “Our program was made for people like Tony.”
go here for the rest
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/326053.html

It's a heart warming story of what a difference one person can make.