Former Homeless Man Helps Out the People he Onced Lived With

Oscar Gasdsen provides the homesless with food and guidance to get off of the streets. 

By: Justin Stevens 

   Homelessness in Columbia can be witnessed from every corner of the Capital City. In a recent survey conducted by the S.C. Coalition of the Homeless, more than 400 new homeless people have arrived in Richland County since 2011.
   Many of these people that are homeless are going through a time period drug additions, mental illnesses and bad hardships from their past. A time period one man used to live through, but now is helping out others in that situation.
   Oscar Gadsden, Pastor of Keepin' It Real Ministries, is at Finlay Park giving out water and food to homeless people battling the South Carolina heat. This some thing that Gadsden dreamed about ten years ago.
   "Right here in Finlay Park," Gadsden said. "I was homeless right here in Columbia."
   Gadsden said he became homeless due to drug and alcohol addiction, but started to turn his life around when he founded Keepin' It Real Ministries in 2005.
   "It is awesome to see people when it started out everyone was homeless in this ministry," Gadsden said. "Thirteen of us living out here in the street, all homeless, used to hold hands at night and pray."
   Gadsden continued to live out on the streets until 2010, the same year he would marry his girlfriend, Cheryl Gadsden. Cheryl believes that many of the homeless people trust Oscar because he lived through many of the situations that they are going through right now.
   "When Oscar was out there, where Oscar slept, they slept," Cheryl Gadsden said. "What Oscar did, they did. They [were] following behind Oscar, but now they are seeing he is off the streets. Of course they want to follow him."
   Oscar, who is now a full-time pastor with the ministry, holds a Sunday service at the Park every Sunday. The ministry provides food and water to those homeless who stop by. Gadsden knows his spiritual message might not stick with some of the homeless at Finlay Park, but hopes his biggest message does.
   "Biggest message is do not give up," Gadsden said. "Do not give up. I do not care how much this society or this city dumps on you, do not give up."
   Since the start of the ministry in 2005, the ministry now provides the homeless with blankets, clothing, job training, recovery programs and transitional houses. To learn more information, please visit www.keepinitrealministriessc.blogspot.com