Please Follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Gettr, Truth Social, Twitter
Al has been living on the streets since 2008. For decades, he worked in construction—building homes, businesses, and neighborhoods with nothing but his hands, sweat, and skill. He played by the rules, took pride in his work, and never asked for a handout. Yet today, he finds himself walking the streets with bad hips and knees, too broken to sleep lying down, and too forgotten for society to care.
What happened to Al isn’t just his story—it’s the story of an industry that turned its back on men like him.
The Price of Doing Things Right
For years, construction was an honest trade where a man could make a living if he was willing to work hard. Small family-run construction businesses were the backbone of the industry, building America one project at a time. But as costs climbed, more contractors cut corners—skipping insurance, ignoring labor laws, and turning to illegal labor.
U.S.-born construction workers earn on average $3.12 more per hour than undocumented workers.
Native-born construction workers earn a median of $1,031 per week, compared to $786 for foreign-born workers.
That wage gap drives down pay for everyone and makes it nearly impossible for mom-and-pop shops to compete. The small firms that play by the rules—paying taxes, carrying liability insurance, following safety regulations—are squeezed out. And the workers who built their lives on honest labor are told they’re suddenly “too expensive.”
Al is one of those workers. He didn’t lose his livelihood because he failed—it was taken from him by a system that rewards those who cheat and punishes those who follow the rules.
From Building Homes to Having None
The cruel irony is that Al once spent his life building homes. Now, he doesn’t have one. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t do drugs. His only crime is growing older in an industry that decided it was cheaper to hire workers with no protections, no rights, and no bargaining power.
Today, Al spends his nights sitting upright on benches because his hips and knees won’t let him lay flat. He hasn’t spoken to a caseworker in years. For society, he has become invisible—another man on the street, forgotten. But Al is not just another statistic. He represents a growing crisis.
A Nation Turning Its Back on Its Builders
Homelessness in America has surged to record levels: On a single night in 2024, 771,480 people were homeless—an 18% increase over 2023.
Families with children saw a 39% increase in homelessness in just one year.
Chronic homelessness, like Al’s, rose by 27%.
Al is the face behind those numbers—a skilled worker, a builder, and a taxpayer, now left outside the system he once helped uphold.
If we want to fix the housing crisis, we can’t ignore stories like his. Illegal hiring practices don’t just cut wages—they destroy the lives of men like Al and crush the small businesses that form the backbone of honest construction.
Until we decide that fairness matters—that people who do things the right way shouldn’t be punished—more men like Al will be thrown out of the system. And the real cost won’t just be economic. It will be human lives, wasted and forgotten.
Stay updated with the latest in the Constitution State with The CT Centinal
