Our Town Special Guest – Advocating for Homeless from the Inside

Our Town with host Andy Ockershausen - Homegrown History

On lack of transportation at Washington DC Women Shelters - Right now we don't have laundry services. The women have to walk over to SOMEs from where we are at 1st and O, take a van over to Adams Place NE to do laundry and then the van doesn't come pick them ... there's not good bus transportation there. Our Town Special Guest, Advocating for Homeless from the Inside A Ockershausen: This is Our Town and this is Andy Ockershausen. I have a great, great sense of something important here today for our show and Our Town, and that's to meet with someone that I'd never thought I'd meet with in the show, a homeless person, who I think is very important to this city and to Our Town. Thank you for being here. We got a lot to talk about, so I want to get started. She has a great laugh, very smart in math, she's a smart woman and she lives in a shelter. Our Town Special Guest That's right. A Ockershausen: How long have you been in a shelter? Our Town Special Guest A little over three years. Early Years and Career A Ockershausen: That's incredible. Now, tell me about your early years. You're a local girl. You grew up and were born in Forestville, Maryland, went to school there, went to high school in Maryland. Our Town Special Guest Right. A Ockershausen: What high school? Our Town Special Guest Suitland. A Ockershausen: And you had a wonderful life in Suitland and you graduated. Our Town Special Guest That's true, yes. A Ockershausen: And I know you're very, very fluent in math. Math, I don't know anybody fluent or efficient, but I know that. And then you moved to North Carolina. You got involved in the government of the United States. Were you working for the Air Force or for Uncle Sam? Our Town Special Guest I was working for the Air Force, Uncle Sam, DOD, I was at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base for four and a half years. A Ockershausen: In Goldsboro, North Carolina. Our Town Special Guest Yes. A Ockershausen: And you did some work in Jacksonville, North Carolina also. Our Town Special Guest Yes. I was down there for about fifteen years during the nineties and early 2000's. A Ockershausen: Wow. And you are civil service? Our Town Special Guest Yes. A Ockershausen: That shows me that you must have a lot of talent and you still end up coming back to Washington. Why didn't you stay in North Carolina? Government Career - North Carolina Our Town Special Guest There were a few issues when I worked for the government. I ended up getting ... In my early years working at the commissary, I got promoted ahead of my peers and I was 18, 19, 20 ... 18, 19 when I started. By the time I was 22 I was promoted above my peers and they were forty-something and I think they held it against me. And they thought evil thoughts, maybe that I had worked ... A Ockershausen: Something special to get promoted. Our Town Special Guest Right. Something special, exactly. A Ockershausen: But, that's not unusual in business, whether in government or in life. Even in the broadcast business there are people who ... I had an age problem when I started because I started at the bottom and I got promoted and I was in charge of people who had once I had worked for. It's difficult to do and you've done that, but that caused you problems. Our Town Special Guest Yes. Eventually. During the 90's I was working for the government still, but I was doing good. Every time they asked me to do something I always went above and beyond. I always was given a good pat on the back. A Ockershausen: You performed. Our Town Special Guest Performed, everything came out glowing, they were happy with everything. I would fix things for people that were well above my pay grade level and, like I said, they always called on me to help them out and I always came to and thought sooner or later I'll get rewarded. Then they started giving me a hard time at work and said that you had to be c...