Eduardo has experienced addiction and homelessness, but is now focusing on reuniting with his children.

When Eduardo was 15, he met a girl and started working for her uncle as a deejay. “He gave me my first turntables and taught me the first techniques I needed, that I still use today.”

Eduardo got married and went to work for 100.3 FM. He got his own nightly show on the popular radio station and started meeting famous artists. “They all drank and used drugs,” he said. “It was the lifestyle. I was just getting more and more into it.”

Eduardo started using cocaine and crystal meth, despite his wife’s pleas. “By that time, I was really popular and playing all the clubs here. From Wednesday through Monday, it was just all drugs and alcohol. That was when my wife left.”

Eduardo remembers going to 7-11 with a friend with thousands of dollars in his pocket. “My friend said, ‘You gotta stop doing drugs before you end up like him,’ and I remember laughing and saying, ‘I’m never going be like that. That guy isn’t doing drugs, the drugs are doing him.’ A year-and-a-half later, I was that guy.”

Eduardo was frequently arrested and became an addict. After one charge, he was facing five years in jail, but was offered a program and came to the Mission. “This is the first time I’m really reading the Bible,” he said. “I got Bibles given to me my whole life, and I was the guy who said I didn’t need it. But this program is teaching me to be humble and helpful.

“I really love helping at the outreaches, seeing the faces of the families we help … I’ve always taken so much for granted. I used to treat people like they were less than me. When I was in jail, I called my mom and told her, ‘You know why God let me become homeless? Because he wanted me to be humble.’ Because I wasn’t humble at all.”

Eduardo’s main focus now is his family. “I know I have to change for myself, and I want to, but my family is so important to me. I don’t want to see my mom suffer anymore and that’s a big reason why I’m trying to better myself and find a new way to live. I had so much, and I destroyed all my opportunities and everything I earned because of my addictions. I don’t want money, or possessions, or clothes. I want my family back.”