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Lamont C. gets off the streets for a second time

STORY AND PHOTO BY HANNAH HERNER

It’s all new for Lamont C., who has his own room for the first time in his life.

For the last seven or eight years, he was staying at Nashville Rescue Mission, or with his brother.

In earlier years, when he was incarcerated, he had a cellmate. And when that cellmate attacked him, sending him to the hospital for stitches, he pledged to never go back. In 2017, he got out on parole.

Soon after, he found The Contributor.

It’s been a difficult transition, but he’d advise anyone in a similar situation to accept all the help they can get. Friends, family, The Contributor and other organizations like Project Return and Mental Health Co-Op have helped set him up for success with income, job training and necessary documents to get housing.

“I got a lot of help from friends,” Lamont says. “It helps when people help you out. You get tired of going through what you been going through so it’ll make you change.”

As a teen, Lamont lived in foster and group homes. He was raised by a single mother in public housing near the Gulch, but when she passed when Lamont was 13, he was put into the foster care system.

“It was hard, but it was fun,” he says. “They take you everywhere, Opryland, movies, to the mall, out to eat. They get you stuff for Christmas. You write your name on a list and you wake up and you have most of the stuff you wrote on the paper. It was fun. It actually got me off the streets. I was living in the projects — a lot of stuff going on in the projects.”

It was in a group home in Knoxville that he became a 49ers fan, in the heydays of Steve Young and Joe Montana. One of the house parents would trade football cards with him, and even gave him a 49ers jacket. More recently, he followed the Patriots because he’s a Tom Brady fan. Now he’s a Seahawks fan. When he has downtime from selling The Contributor downtown, he likes to watch horror movies like It, some drama and action movies, and if he does watch comedy, Chris Tucker is a favorite.

It’s hard for Lamont to think about his younger self, and what could have prevented him from being in trouble in the first place. He says he knew he was doing wrong, but it felt good to rebel against the rules.

“Back then I was always with my brother, we were doing a lot of drugs, smoking weed. I was doing some bad stuff,” he says.

Lamont is very soft-spoken, though he’s opened up a bit more in the last few months. He looks much younger than his 43 years, constantly holding in a smirk. While he doesn’t buy many papers at one time, he’s very consistent at the office to pick them up. He chalks up his shy nature to the life he’s lived thus far, where keeping to himself kept him safe.

“I’ve been hiding,” he says. “When you’re in group homes you’re hiding from the stuff that happens on the street. A lot of people drink, do drugs, alcohol, run the streets all night.”

But now he has some opportunity to start again, with The Contributor housing navigators working on finding him a permanent place to live while he stays at an area hotel rent-free.

Lamont says his goal is to have his own place, continue to stay out of trouble, away from negativity and bad people. It’s starting anew in his own space.

“Everything’s the first time pretty much.”