Alphonzo (see Info)
Alphonzo moved to Baltimore from the Eastern Shore. “I didn’t want to bring shame on my family.” He had been on the street since. That was five years ago. “I just got so comfortable, not paying the rent, getting high.” He says he makes money panhandling and turning tricks. He also has a drug problem. Two weeks earlier a drug deal turned ugly. “We were in an abandoned warehouse and he told me to do jumping jacks. I did them. Then he told me to do push ups. I did them. Then he made me stand on a box and sing. He had friends there too and they started to stab me with little stabs all over. Finally they heated a knife blade and burned my face. I went back a week later for more drugs. But he was gone. It was probably a good thing he wasn’t there.”
