Panhandlers share their stories

Kenneth Dean Miller, who hangs out in the median on Little River Turnpike in Annandale by the Hummer/Heritage intersection, has been homeless since 2010.

He and his wife had been working as day laborers but left the area to travel to South Carolina to care for his ailing mother. His wife was suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which was exacerbated by the mold in his mother’s house.

After his mother died, the couple returned to Northern Virginia and lived in their car. Miller and his wheelchair-bound wife got by panhandling in the Ballston area. She died on Christmas Eve in 2015.

Miller says his car was stolen and wrecked and that he was given a place to live by Pathway Homes (a nonprofit organization that provides housing to people with mental illness or substance abuse issues who have a history of homelessness). He was evicted and says he doesn’t know why.

He had raised money playing an acoustic guitar outside Metro stations but says he has too much nerve damage in his hand to do that anymore. He now wants to save enough money to get an electric guitar which would be more manageable. He also suffers from scoliosis.

We caught up with Gerald Palmer panhandling from the median in Gallows Road near the Arlington Boulevard intersection.

Palmer, age 50, was a gunner’s mate in the Navy in the 1980s and suffers from PSTD, schizophrenia, and paranoia.

Palmer had been living in North Carolina and moved to Northern Virginia two years ago and is trying to access housing through Friendship Place, a nonprofit organization that hosts a homelessness prevention program focusing on veterans.

Meanwhile, he’s staying at the Extended Stay America in Merrifield. The cheapest rate there is about $68 a night for a 30-day stay without daily housekeeping.

Palmer says he can’t get a job because that would jeopardize his claim for benefits.