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| Bay Window : Hope on the Street: Character Biographies |
Ray Guevara
Guevara grew up in a conservative family that experienced cultural barriers to seeking treatment for his bi-polar disorder. As a youth, he struggled with his mental illness, eventually becoming involved with drugs and living on the street as a part of a gang. An outreach worker for the homeless mentally ill, Guevara, who now lives in Modesto, speaks before mental health consumers across the United States. With his illness and substance addictions under control, he uses his experience to urge people to get the help they need.
John Joseph (J.J.)
J.J. suffers from schizophrenia and was homeless for five years. A former mid-shipman in the United States Navy, he first starting showing signs of mental illness while at sea. Through a series of mishaps, he ended up on the streets of San Francisco, sleeping in the subway and spending his days at one particular corner downtown. His is a heartwarming tale of friendship and how a flower vendor on "his" street corner took a chance on him, giving him a job and changing his life.
Ken Lim
Lim has been a mental health care professional for the past 13 years. He is currently an outreach worker for the city of San Francisco, and his focus has been on working with the mentally ill homeless population since his graduation from college. His consistent relationship building with his clients has helped him persuade several to seek treatment and get off the street.
Richard Mancini
Mancini is known to many as "Circle Man" for his tendency to walk around in circles on the same block in San Francisco. He is an elderly veteran and former chemist who has the financial means and family support to leave the streets, but who has been cycling in and out of homelessness, hospitals and jails for more than 20 years. His family has been at a complete loss in coping with the cycles of his mental illness and homelessness.
Sandra Washington
Washington has lived in the Caltrain station in San Francisco for 10 years, keeping to herself and politely declining help from social workers. Outreach workers eventually learn that she has a family in Mississippi who has been trying to find her for 18 years. As the family dreams of the awaited reunion, Sandra has a setback in her recovery and now denies she left a family behind in the South.
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