Editor's note: This holiday season, the La Crosse Tribune is highlighting the stories of those who have experienced homelessness and ultimately found stable housing.
As David Gene Steele climbed the steps to his unit one tender step at a time, he became increasingly hard to understand. The closer to his living room he got, the more his cool rock tunes started to drown him out.
Born in 1961 in between Caledonia and Reno, Minnesota, Steele has been a part of the biggest rock movements of history. His family moved to Manchester, England two years later. His father was working intermittently as a radar technician for the U.S. in the Vietnam War.
He first became homeless in 1976 when his father returned from his third tour in Vietnam. Steele's mom was stuck in a Manchester hospital and his father took Steele back to Minnesota. He didn't stay long and was soon on his own. Steele stayed with his sister, who had run away at age 14, while he could.
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The year before his return, Steele's earliest inspiration, Alice Cooper, released his debut solo album, "Welcome to My Nightmare."
In the years following, Steele would go through more big moves, deal with a string of family deaths and a mental health crisis that ended in him burning down his own house, making him homeless for the last time.
Facing the music
In 1997, Steele's father, grandmother, cousin and sister's husband all died within a six-month period. It was this string of deaths that made Steele seek respite in hard rock music.
"See, I was listening to Michael Jackson, Osborne, Chris Mayfield. I went from them to Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath in a day," he laughed somberly. "After three years, you kind of realize they're not coming back no more."
Already working through mental health issues, Steele's condition tumbled into 1999. In a bleak suicide attempt, Steele set fire to his house while he was still inside.
According to Steele, it took 45 fire department staff to put the fire out. He was charged in La Crosse Circuit Court with arson of a building without owner's consent and recklessly endangering safety.
Steele was jailed for a year and given 20 years of probation. Steele was convicted again in 2003 for the reckless endangerment charge and jailed again for 30 months.
Now that his home was gone, Steele went to the streets. He made a vow to turn away from alcohol and has tried to remain sober ever since the incident. While his streak was not perfect, Steele is proud of his sobriety to this day and cited Alice Cooper as a role model as the rockstar had also taken a vow of sobriety that was important to his craft.
Picking up the pieces from his time in jail, Steele started the second half of the 2000s with further probation and increasing body pains that made life on the streets ever more agonizing.
Powering through pain
When Steele reached his living room, he grimaced as he sat down in a lounging chair. He swept his long, silvery rockstar hair away from his face and patted his massive speaker unit that was droning out smooth guitar tones.
"I used to have a $15,000 monster stereo system, doing smoke machines, strobe lights on it," he chuckled, remembering the audio system. "Neighbor did not like that."
His new machine is more modest but still gets him the sonic landscape he craves. It helps Steele enjoy his tunes and shoot rubber bands around his room while he's stuck in a seated position most of the time.
After the house fire, arthritis started flaring up in Steele's knees. He's struggled to get around for decades, impeding the amount of help he was able to seek out while he was homeless.
"I'm in constant pain. I ask myself, 'How many times a day did you say, 'Ow' David," he chuckled.
He's got January to look forward to, as he'll go into Gundersen Health System for vital operations on his knees. While it won't fix all function in his joints, the operation should snuff out lots of the pain he experiences.
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Mom's Meals program
Steele isn't able to stand upright for more than an hour at a time.
Cooking, cleaning and taking care of most daily things is a challenge that is typically too much to overcome. Very recently, Steele signed up for the Mom's Meals program to help him stock up on food that's easy to make and easy to store.
Through Mom's Meals, Steele gets a package of 14 meals delivered every two weeks. The meals are individually packaged and ready to cook straight out of the plastic. Most only require an oven, hot water or a microwave to prepare.
"They're pretty good meals actually," Steele said, holding out a ready-to-bake macaroni and cheese dish.
To qualify, Mom's Meals clients must be 65 years or older, have a disability, require assistance shopping for or preparing meals or be on a Medicaid plan that offers a paid meal benefit.
Steele heard about the program through My Choice, a Medicaid health care provider geared toward independent living.
Faith groups' warming shelters
Steele was able to get back into housing through Couleecap's Housing First program. After working through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's progress list, Steele was matched to an affordable unit at an income-adjusted rental rate.
Couleecap benefits by receiving resources and some funds through HUD. Regional providers such as Couleecap are often responsible for connecting clients to local housing programs such as Housing First as a stand-in for HUD.
Besides the stairs that strain his knees, Steele is grateful for having his own place. He's easily entertained and spends most of his time listening to music, watching TV or setting up and shooting down targets for his homemade rubber band guns.
Since his solution was a long time coming, Steele offered some thoughts into how the region can better provide for those going through housing insecurity.
"Think outside the box. I always thought we could get more in these churches. Have each church adopt three people, help them get along," Steele said. "More places to go and to sleep. Even on weekdays, the library, Couleecap - you can't stay out there long enough to fall asleep."
In the La Crosse County and city collaborative plan, Pathways Home, organizers are trying to get local religious organizations back on board as part of the region's homelessness response.
In August, the Pathways Home team met with 22 organizations they believed could help stop people from falling into homelessness and connect people who are experiencing homelessness to the correct resources. Isaac Hoffman, La Crosse Area Family Collaborative Director, said the outreach efforts continue.
The Pathways Home team launched a Neighbor to Neighbor program that partners faith leaders with people who have recently gotten back into housing. A pilot program began before Pathways Home was established to form these long-term support structures.
A Faith Action Team was also created in July and has started a benevolence fund model to support homeless people in a way that aligns with the county-city collaborative plan.
When Steele first became homeless, he would try to show up at the First Baptist Church's warming center when it was still in operation. The warming center has since closed, leaving the Catholic Charities downtown warming center as the only one left.
The Catholic Charities warming center opens about 45 spots at 7 p.m. every night Nov. 1 through May 1. Clients have to leave the center in the morning.
"How many people froze to death here? A lot of those were alcoholics. Thins your blood out," Steele said.
He added that alcoholism makes it difficult to get better as some programs require total sobriety to get housing or help. Without a home and in poor health, the winter brings a lethal combination to many living outdoors in the region.
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