Author, national activist talks homeless days

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Roy Juarez Jr. an author and national activist for at-risk youth and homeless kids will speak at Weslaco ISD Thursday night and talk about his book, "Homeless By Choice".

Juarez grew up homeless and the biggest thing he wanted, he said, was a place to wash his clothes, "I didn't want to go to school, I didn't want to smell, I still was a teenager, and I wanted to be accepted. I want to talk about how we can help kids remove some of these barriers that are going to get in the way between them and their education," he said.

In his book, he talks about how having a house does not guarantee a home. Juarez shares his journey from homelessness to college graduation and his mission to help others.

"I said, You know what? Before I use my degree, I'm going to give back in honor of every person who had housed me, fed me, or clothed me. I'm going to live homeless one more time. I'll be Homeless by Choice. I'm going to live out of my car and drive from Los Angeles to Florida. Find as many of them [homeless] as possible and tell them, Don't give up life gets better, but you have to be here to see it. I got to see America through a lens, that not very many people get to see. I lived out of my car for two and a half years, circled the entire nation, and spoke to over 100,000 kids, and my phones just never stopped ringing," he said.

You can catch Juarez's talk tonight at Central Middle School Performing Arts Center in Weslaco at 5:30 p.m. located at 503 E. 6th St.