My name is Frank Daly. I’m a trainee at the Homeless Garden Project. I want to start off by thanking Darrie and all of the management for giving me the honor to talk a little bit about myself and the role I play at HGP.
I was raised here, in Santa Cruz. The last 20 years of my adult life has been pretty rough. I have been homeless, addicted to heroin and methamphetamines. I didn’t want to grow up being an addict or homeless, but as a young child in the foster care system I grew up having trauma and neglect issues. Later it brought me issues, and not knowing how to deal with the pain. My biological mother suffered from addiction and my father was incarcerated for killing someone in an armed robbery, therefore I had to be taken away and was sent to a child orphanage/shelter. The first years of my life were at this shelter, where I grew fond of the staff who I looked up to as family. Being a young child, not knowing or having what a family is supposed to look like, I accepted them as my new family. Later on, down the line, I knew that it was not going to be a forever thing. I knew I would have to move forward to a new foster family at any time, which would break my heart and make me cry when leaving my foster family.
While at these foster care homes I dealt with many different types of families, some that were somewhat caring and others who were abusive and neglectful. As a child that was scary and sad. I had mixed emotions about where I would go next.
That was pretty traumatic to me, I hated moving around so much and dealing with families that were either not the right fit, or even families that were abusive and neglectful.
Up until I met the Daly family, who were the last foster care family and who would become my adopted family down the line, where I felt comfortable as a young child with this new family. They were a pretty decent family as a child, but after they adopted me and I grew up as a teenager, life was still hard for me mentally. I was lost and confused with who I was and where I belonged. I started acting out at a very young age and would run away from home a lot, because I didn’t want to live by the Daly’s harsh punishments and rules they had for me as a teenager.
So as a teenager the Daly’s were not fit to deal with a traumatized teen that had been through the system. I ended up living with my friends until I graduated high school. I was forced to grow up pretty fast after high school. I was on my own and have been on my own ever since, with no family to have my back and no one to call or help me. Except for one friend I grew up with whose mom, named Jennifer Choate, would help me out in times of need and emergencies. I looked up to her as a second mom. I appreciate and love her very much. So the trauma and things I’ve seen and dealt with as a child, I have barely touched base on, there’s a lot more I could tell you. But I hope you can imagine how hard life was for me, not knowing who my next family would be and where I would fit in. This led me to a numbing process of starting to use drugs and hanging out with the wrong crowd of people in my city. From then on I ended up not caring about anything in the world, and living my life carefree getting high every day. In and out of jail, breaking the law, I didn’t care where my life was going.
Everyday life was about getting up and finding a way to get high for the last 20 years of my life, on the streets of Santa Cruz, CA. Hanging out with a bad group of people and dealing with the drug life and the horrible things that come along with it,such as overdose. Seeing my friends die in front of me is something I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. I was so scared of never being able to get myself clean and was worried about where my life would end up.
Up until three years ago when I found out I was becoming a father which led me towards the direction of getting my act together because I didn’t want my daughter to grow up without a father, like I did. Even knowing that I had responsibilities as a new dad, and I had a child out there, the demons of addiction would still pull me down and I couldn’t escape the life I was living, as much as I really wanted. I knew my little girl needed me, but I was too deep in my addiction. It took a while to get myself straight. Something drastic needed to happen because it seemed like there was no end to my use.
Towards the end of my homelessness and run on the streets, I ended up catching a case, by breaking the law, and once again led me to Santa Cruz county jail where I was incarcerated for a long while behind bars, which gave me the time to think about my life and where it was heading. During court the DA was dead set on me spending two years i n prison and I had pleaded to my representative and to the DA to not do that because going to jail over and over again doesn’t help me with my recovery. I pleaded to the DA to send me to a program such as Janus of Santa cruz. I was blessed for him to agree upon that decision. I was sent to Janus Santa Cruz, rehab on house arrest and an ankle monitor. This time I was about to take it seriously and work on my recovery, instead of bailing out on Janus detox, like I normally would.
Now, I’m here today and can say that I am sober and clean and am part of my baby girl’s life, where she knows that she can rely on me and see me now whenever she wants. She can call on her daddy whenever her little heart desires and I will be there. I am so blessed to say that this is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Having my daughter and succeeding in my journey to recovery and working as an upstanding citizen at a place like the Homeless garden project, where I can give back to my community that I took so much from and I feel so blessed and like a new person today.
Recently, I have been living in a sober living environment (SLE) through Sobriety Works. I have been working the steps through NA, along with taking methadone every day, which has been helping me with my cravings. I recently achieved one year clean on June 28th, 2024, which I am so proud of and couldn’t have done without the support from my fellow peers at the HGP and everyone else who has helped me on this journey.
Programs like the Homeless Garden Project were a true blessing in disguise and gave me the opportunity to change as a hardworking citizen in society and my community. It has given me certain tools and coping skills to deal with my addiction and my recovery. Being out in mother nature and doing healthy work on this beautiful planet has changed me in so many ways and has made me a whole new person. It has made me grateful and honored to be a part of this program here in Santa Cruz. I think there should be more programs like this out there in the US, especially for people that are in recovery, dealing with addiction, because I am proof that it could work out for the best.
So here I am today at the HGP, where I have a lot in common with the people that work here. I have been able to learn new things about gardening, vegetables, and there’s a certain comradery that I have with all of the trainees that I enjoy thoroughly. I wouldn’t change this for the world. I am glad that I was able to find this type of work and happy that I’ve stuck through all the hard times and times that I didn’t think I was going to get through it. I plan on staying here for the full program and continue on learning more things at the garden project. I enjoy the staff, management, and appreciate all of the care they have to offer to all of us trainees and look forward to growing up inside and out as a person and starting after this program looking for my dream job which would be a counselor at a drug and rehab facility, such as JANUS of Santa Cruz, where I feel like they were a big part of my recovery and helped save my life, and would be honored to be a part of their team.
–Frank Daly began his time with HGP in March 2024. He presented this talk at the July 20, 2024 Sustain Supper. He is the proud father of Nevaeh, who was 3 at the time of this talk.