Being a rigger at a refinery is a physically demanding job. There’s a lot of climbing up and down cranes, and that requires a fit and sure-footed worker. Jesse Flores was such a worker, and his work ethic soon gained him the respect of his co-workers. “They liked the way I worked, and one position led to another. Becoming a rigger was helping me get a foot inside the door and then all this happened.”
“All this” was Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterial infection that is highly resistant to many antibiotics. In an instant, tough, active Jesse Flores went from climbing cranes at an oil refinery to being paralyzed: the infection had shut down his nervous system, leaving him unable to walk. It was a tough blow that affected Jesse’s mental outlook as much as his physical condition.
“I became very angry. I didn’t leave the house for a long time,” Jesse recalls, living where he could with family or friends. “I didn’t leave unless it was absolutely necessary. I was depressed, thinking my life was over. Friends and family tried talking to me. They tried to tell me things were going to be OK but I didn’t want to hear any of it.”
His mood continued to spiral downward, and his situation worsened. He eventually had to move into a nursing facility, losing even more of his independence. Words of encouragement did nothing to lift Jesse’s depression. But as they say, actions speak louder than words. In Jesse’s case, a stranger in a wheelchair was about to turn up the volume.
“One day some guy in a wheelchair comes in and tells me he’s there to help me. I thought, ‘Is this some kind of sick joke? You got to be kidding me.’ And believe me, at that time I was not in a joking mood.”
The ‘guy’ was Moses Reyes with Coastal Bend Center for Independent Living (CBCIL), a regional nonprofit organization assisting persons with disabilities. And he was about to inadvertently demonstrate to Jesse what everybody else had been trying to tell him.
In typical fashion, Jesse wasn’t in a listening mood.
“But as he was leaving I thought, ‘How did this guy get here? Did he come on a bus?’ So I followed him out and saw that he was getting into a truck. He was getting in the driver’s side! I’m thinking, ‘What?’ I watched him get in the truck and drive off. I was speechless.”
It was that moment when a light went off in Jesse’s head and he stopped feeling sorry for himself. Moses and the rest of the staff of CBCIL began counseling Jesse and helped him regain his independence.
Independence, of course, begins with permanent housing. CBCIL helped Jesse secure a Project Access voucher from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA).
Originally a pilot program developed at the federal level, TDHCA’s program assists low-income, non-elderly persons with disabilities to transition from institutions into the community by providing access to affordable housing and necessary supportive services.
TDHCA applied for the pilot program and received 35 Section 8 housing vouchers from HUD in 2001. After the expiration of the HUD pilot program in 2003, TDHCA elected to continue the program in recognition of the tremendous need for housing affordable to persons with disabilities.
Now, secure in a home of his own with his four daughters, Jesse is a new man.
“For what I’ve been through, for what we’ve all been through, I couldn’t ask for anything more,” he declares today. “I’m not angry anymore. I stopped feeling sorry for myself. Once I got out of that frame of mind, everything else just fell into place and I just kind of figured out how to adjust to everything. Now my girls’ happiness is what actually makes me push myself more. And my ultimate goal is to walk again. I’m ahead of schedule in my therapy. Now I can stand all the way up!”
To learn more about Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, please visit their website.
For more information on Housing Choice Vouchers and Supportive Housing, see our advocacy page.
Printer-friendly version
