FORT SMITH -- James Dozier hit bottom in 2010, when he was walking from Alma to Fort Smith to live along the Arkansas River and someone pulled over to give him a ride.
Homeless for nine years, Dozier had been staying with his parents, who had just learned of his homelessness. But he was unhappy because he believed he was a drain on them. So he headed back to Fort Smith.
The Alma native and five-year Army veteran became homeless in 2001 in a spiral that began when his fiancee left him at the altar. With low self-esteem, he turned to drugs and alcohol, and he soon lost his home.
"I just didn't like myself and was a functioning addict until I wasn't anymore," said Dozier, now 42.
His homeless life varied from boredom to hustling to make sure he had food. That meant panhandling and even digging through dumpsters.
Sometimes he stayed with friends, and sometimes he lived in his car. And sometimes he lived along the river, where many homeless people live in camps of makeshift shelters.
He was heading back to a riverside camp when he got that ride from a stranger. When he told the stranger where he was going, the man told Dozier that the Salvation Army in Fort Smith had a shelter where he could stay, and then he drove Dozier there.
As Dozier was getting out of the car, the man handed him $6 and told him to get something to eat.
Later, Dozier applied for and was allowed into the Salvation Army's shelter, although he said he couldn't imagine why.
"Things were working in my favor, and I wasn't even trying," he said.
He found out about Next Step Homeless Services, down the street from the Salvation Army, and met a case manager who worked with him.
In addition to receiving counseling and other services, he found he qualified for living in Next Step's Gabriel House, a transitional house for the homeless. Then he moved to the Buddy Smith Home for homeless veterans, also supported by Next Step.
"I found there were people there who cared and wanted to help me," he said.
He liked the arrangement. For the first time in nine years, he said, he had his own room, a bed and a door that locked so he could have privacy.
He said the regimen was set up to get a person into the mindset of living in a house and having responsibilities. There, Dozier focused on living, not just surviving, he said.
Amy Sherrill, Next Step's executive director, said the transitional housing helps people by teaching them life skills.
"It gives them skills on how to live in a stable environment," she said.
When a person is homeless, she said, he just thinks about surviving. But when the person has a job and is in transitional housing, he thinks about things such as hygiene and budgeting for meals.
If a resident at one of the houses is working, she said, he has to save 80 percent of his income. He has to remain drug- and alcohol-free and do chores around the house such as planning and cooking meals.
After six months at the Buddy Smith Home, Dozier qualified for federal Department of Housing and Urban Development vouchers for housing administered by the Old Fort Homeless Coalition through the economic self-sufficiency program at the Fort Smith Housing Authority.
He moved into his own one-bedroom apartment, where he lives today. As part of the program, he has to continue working and meeting with his case manager at the housing authority.
Dozier has a job at a motel, where he started as a day laborer, moved up to maintenance worker and now, four years later, is the front desk manager.
When times got rough, he said, he was able to turn to the food pantries in Fort Smith, the Community Services Clearinghouse and Christ for the World.
On May 15, the Old Fort Homeless Coalition hosted a graduation celebration for Dozier as the first single, male graduate of the program to achieve self-sufficiency and maintain it with no housing assistance for more than six months.
"He's very proud of his accomplishment, and we're very proud of him, too," said Ken Pyle, coalition president and housing authority executive director.
He said Dozier's success at raising himself from homelessness was a demonstration of the cooperation and effectiveness of the many agencies in Fort Smith in the effort to help the homeless.
The coalition wants to take the cooperation further by putting as many homeless services as possible in one place to make it easier for homeless people to get back into a stable situation, Pyle said.
The coalition is planning to open the Riverview Hope Campus in a vacant Riverside Furniture factory building at 301 S. E St.
"I think the campus is such a wonderful idea because they will be able to help people," Dozier said.
The coalition has raised the $1.9 million needed to buy the 127,000-square-foot building and renovate it to accommodate the first phase of the project in 35,000 square feet of the building. It will include a 75-bed, low-barrier shelter where the only rules for getting in are that drugs and alcohol are banned and no violence is allowed.
Dozier said he liked the idea of one location for services -- set to include laundry, storage, counseling and more -- and the no-questions-asked shelter. When he was homeless, he said, it had been difficult to get to services scattered around town.
"It makes for a difficult walk sometimes," he said.
On May 12, the Fort Smith Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit to develop the campus in the building. Pyle said he hopes the coalition can close on the building's purchase in early June.
State Desk on 05/26/2015