Robert Michael Williams, who has gone by Jimmy his whole life, is 72 years old and living on the street in Corvallis. 

He always starts his day the same way: by waking up and going inside Starbucks to charge his electric wheelchair. In total, he needs to charge it five to six times a day.

When Williams arrived in Corvallis after spending five days on a bus from San Francisco in April 2023, he did not have his wheelchair. Instead, he was walking with a cane, but after three months in the new city, he was provided with an old wheelchair by the men’s Unity Shelter in Corvallis.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Williams said he was kidnapped at five years old and grew up in different foster families. He has been unhoused almost all of his life, he said. After several accidents, fatigue has led to decreased mobility in his legs. He tries to walk a little bit every day, but it is getting more difficult. 

“My body is failing me,” Williams said.

After 54 years in San Francisco, Williams began to miss North Carolina and decided to return. However, what he witnessed when he arrived there really disappointed him. 

“I was ashamed to say that I was born and raised there,” Williams said regarding how poorly the population of individuals facing homelessness was treated. 

He decided to travel back to San Francisco, where he met someone from Corvallis and ended up on a bus to Oregon.

Williams said he never gives up on anything.

“I am trying really hard to survive and do something with myself,” he said. 

He added that he sets goals and tries to achieve them, and that his current goal is to get a driver’s license to be able to drive the van he just bought. He hopes he can get it before his wheelchair fails him. 

Every bit of money that he can get he saves for practical expenses like buying a van or buying new glasses.

“I am a victim of society,” Williams said. “I am gonna sleep till the cracks of time before the world even knows about me and the information I leave behind will give guidelines to understand the homeless a little more.”

“All of us that are homeless are broken––mentally, physically, spiritually and financially,” Williams added. 

From Williams’s perspective, most people facing homelessness fall within three categories.

The first is a “person (that) doesn’t have enough sense to get out of the rain, walking around with no rhyme or reason or purpose in their life … (The second is) stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to do better cause you don’t want to do any worse,” Williams said.

Williams gives an example for the second category: someone who does have a job but no place to live. 

The third category is a person who chooses to be that way because of their addiction, according to Williams. 

Williams added that there is a fourth type of person facing homelessness: him. Someone who was once lost and has now found his happy place here in Corvallis.

Williams thinks that it is really important for people to understand what he is saying because it gives perspective and makes people “look at things a little bit differently about the homeless situation.” 

All during his life, Williams said he has tried to work, but without a formal education, it is really hard to find a job. He always tries to do small jobs like dishwashing, but due to his mobility and age, this is becoming harder. 

“It’s a struggle out here. It really is. You are all so fortunate to be able to get an education and become someone,” Williams said.