Editor’s note: This transcript has been lightly edited for AP Style and punctuation.
Picture this.
I’m in my hometown movie theater, The Visulite. It’s located right in the heart of downtown Staunton, Virginia. It’s where I used to go check out the Spider-Man films when I was younger.
Except this time, it’s not Peter Parker on the screen: It’s my story on there.
This feels surreal.
In my community, my story is an all-too-common story.
They actually have a name for it.
The school-to-prison pipeline.
For my first five years of adulthood, the roof over my head was provided by the state. Specifically, I was incarcerated at Coffeewood Correctional Center and Pocahontas State Correctional Center.
My housing journey then includes an unfortunate extended stay in Room 418 of the Howard Johnson. Trust me. Our family wasn’t there because we wanted to be there.
The housing journey concludes with me, my wife and the kids finally getting an apartment.
It still feels good to say that.
The road from a correctional center to an apartment complex is paved with difficulties, and it’s a journey I wish my wife and kids never had to take with me.
I hope you never have to lay your head in some of the places I’ve laid mine. If you have to check the yes box on the “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” question, just know that it makes getting an apartment tough.
Incredibly tough.
Now, throw in a housing crisis — where even people with clean background checks and decent credit scores are struggling to find apartments — and it feels impossible.
It’s crazy to see your story being shown on a big screen, but that wasn’t even the craziest part of the night.
The craziest part happened during the panel discussion afterward.
Tim Martin, the commonwealth’s attorney who prosecuted my court case, was a panelist.
Small world, right?
The more of my story that was told, the more he started to put two plus two together.
“I prosecuted your case, didn’t I?” Martin asked.
Yes, Mr. Martin. Indeed, you did.
There was a split second where I felt a certain way about encountering him again. However, I’m a grown man now. I take responsibility for my actions.
Yes, he prosecuted my case, but my decisions are what landed me in prison — not him. He was just doing his job.
In taking accountability, I see growth in myself. Ironically, it’s the growth I could never convince property managers to see in me.
Remember, I’m a convicted felon. I check the box.
Mr. Martin and I shook hands.
He told me that he was proud of my growth as a man, and that he liked my redemption story. Then he told me my family was beautiful.
It was a full circle moment.
The story can’t get any crazier, right?
Well…
On the exact same day that I was sharing my story with filmmakers, I had a photo shoot for a project on housing insecurity.
Later, the same nonprofit that organized the photo shoot helped to host a housing summit. They asked me to be the opening speaker.
The housing summit organizers wanted to start with a story, not a statistic.
The housing summit day arrives. Now, it’s just me and 200 strangers in a Holiday Inn Conference Center. All I know how to do is be authentic, so I take the risk and make myself vulnerable.
Maybe these people will judge me. Maybe they won’t.
I tell them about what I did as a teenager that led to my incarceration. I tell them how I used my five years in those prison walls to better myself, and how I’ve been the best husband, father and employee I know how to be since my release.
Then I tell them out of all the words that define me — dad, husband, felon and employee — felon is always the one that gets the most attention.
That’s why I lived out of Room 418 of the Howard Johnson despite my wife and me both working.
I wrap up my opening remarks and tell the audio/visual team to cue the video.
It’s completely quiet while I talk.
The audience seems completely engaged with the video, too.
The organizers tell me it was perfect and that my story did what a stat could never do. During a break, many people in the audience tell me the same thing.
I tell people all the time that I’m not a housing expert. I’ve just been through some stuff. And I don’t mind talking about it.
School-to-prison pipeline is only one chapter in my story. I’m home now.
With an apartment to finally call home.
To watch VPM’s Life in the Heart Land Housing episode featuring Jylil’s story, click on video below.