‘I HAD TO LEARN TO BE HOMELESS’
Lansing’s Mike Karl and Homeless Angels group are about second chances
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LANSING, Mich. - Mike Karl credits the homeless community with helping him survive six months on the streets of Lansing more than a decade ago. It’s why he has dedicated his life to homeless outreach.
In late 2004 he lost his home to the bank and couldn’t pay his bills. Then he started drinking.
“I only had me and a bottle, really, and I talked too much to that bottle,” Karl said. “It took over. It was the worst time in my life. I lost touch with everything.”
He managed to keep his job at General Motors’ Delta Township Assembly plant, but slept on park benches and street corners. He said it was other homeless individuals who taught him how to stay warm, showed him where he could get food and take a shower.
“I had to learn how to be homeless,” Karl said. “It’s not a skill that you have. They pretty much showed me exactly what I needed to do, and they became family.”
Karl said it took him two years and a second chance from a pastor to deal with his alcoholism and stabilize his life.
Today that’s what Karl’s grassroots organization, Homeless Angels, believes in — chances, sometimes as many as it takes to help get someone off the streets.
The nonprofit, founded four years ago, provides temporary housing for homeless individuals and families at the Burkewood Inn. The group takes donations to fund outreach.
The effort grew around Karl’s yearly “week on the streets” every November, during which he would spend his nights sleeping in homeless camps around Lansing. He documented the experience with photos and videos.
Karl still works full time at GM, but spends nearly as much time in his office at the Burkewood in Lansing Township.
He spends his mornings working to help find shelter for people who don’t have homes and encouraging clients to seek employment and other assistance.
If there are issues, Karl usually handles them with ease, said Amanda Zimmerman, who works with Homeless Angels. “He can get to the level where they’re at,” she said.