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Right after this, I talked to Tom, 53, who was begging on a wheelchair. His right leg had been amputated at the knee. Before his misfortune, he was making $250,000 year, working in waste management. He also owned $2 million in real estate. For seven years straight, he fed a hundred homeless people at his church on Thanksgiving. Then came a blood clot and a hernia, with lengthy hospital stays, costing $2.3 million altogether, only a fraction of which was covered by his insurance. Sensing rough sailing ahead, his ex wife withdrew much of their saving and hoarded it for herself. Then came the housing crash, which wiped out a lot of his real estate wealth. Now he survives on his disability and by begging.

To beg at 8th and Market, a prime corner, he had to fight off, literally, four other guys.

Tom has twelve siblings, but none would help him now that he's down and out. He grew up in a home with 28 rooms.

I was skeptical that he could fight anyone, being in a wheelchair, but he said, "All fights end up on the ground," and showed me a piece of steel he had used as a weapon. He said his stepdad used to beat him until he was twelve and could fight back.

His troubles had been planned by God, Tom said, to teach him humility, and to bring him back to God.



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