Homelessness
Behind the Blindfold
David Raether was a Hollywood Comedy writer that was married with a family of eight children and he worked for Roseanne Barr writing scripts for her television show which was his dream job. He earned $650,000 and lived in a five bedroom house in a white picket fence neighborhood in San Marino. Working long hours at his job and not spending time with his family, he decided to take two years off from work since he had a nice nest egg of $500,000 in the bank. After the two years he tried returning to the TV industry, but reality shows had increased which were cheap to produce and Raether was not in demand anymore. He searched relentlessly for other jobs, stole water from neighbors and refinanced his house a couple of times to survive and found his self houseless. Quickly, he had to find shelter for his wife and children. His children lived with friends and families and Raether lived on the streets without his family knowing.
David Raether - A New Face to Homelessness
Homeless people are stereotyped as drug addicts by most people. In 2008, National Coalition for the Homeless asked the Mayors of 25 top cities what were the top three causes of homelessness and the survey revealed that substance abuse was the highest cause of homelessness. In David Raether case, he was not a drug addict and his end results was homelessness.
Raether started experiencing the homelessness that he used to view as he drove to his dream job. One of his daily routines was Starbucks and working on crossword puzzles, but now he found his self digging in the trash cans for the crossword puzzles at Starbucks. Raether pointed out in his interview that homelessness made him learn to focus on the moment like where do I sleep tonight, what do I eat or where do I go to the bathroom? Raether also said, "Your perspective gets telescoped into much smaller units of time -- hours rather than months, days rather than years." Time sits still when you lose everything and you have no family or job to go too.
Through homelessness, Raether learned how to become braver and more resourceful. He started finding employment through Craigslist Writing Gigs and he used Rideshares to visit his children because the children lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco. After his wife divorced him, a girlfriend inspired him to write a Memoir: Tell me, Something She Said. He has set-up a website called What It's Like to Fail which has a blog where he communicates with people who are going through homelessness and he shares his journey while homeless. He empathizes for drug abuser and mentally ill people that are homeless. He still struggles with homelessness from time to time.
David Raether's story is important because he reveals another side of homelessness that is not the norm in our communties which surprises people when the story is told. This story educates people that the wealthy experiences homelessness just like the underprivileged. David Raether gives homelessness a new face
Raether's House and Family
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