Here's how big a difference five years can make:

        In 1996, Gregory Payton was homeless and so deep in the throes of active drug and alcohol addiction that he totaled two taxi cabs in one week.

        In 2002, he's a 46-year-old honors student at UC with a 3.5 grade point average, a certified chemical dependency counselor, a residential monitor in a drug treatment facility and, come fall he hopes, a graduate student in social work.

        Something happened somewhere along the line.

        “Two things. I had just come back here from Norfolk, Va. I had been a machinist in a shipyard, making really good money. But I was alone — no family, not many friends, nothing to do but abuse alcohol first, later crack.

        “I came home because I was in trouble. I didn't know I had a disease, but my mother saw it right away. She said get help or get out. I refused and she threw me out. It was tough love on her part, but one of the most important things that ever happened to me.”

        The other important thing that happened to him was Street Vibes, the monthly paper put out by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. It's the one badged vendors sell for $1, mostly downtown and in the UC area. Mr. Payton's favorite spots were Seventh and Vine and outside the Dixie Terminal Building.

        “I was living at the Drop-In Center when I started selling Vibes. That's when my whole life changed. I started talking to my customers. And I started listening to people.”

        One of the people he listened to was Don Whitehead, former director of the Coalition, founder of Vibes and current director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C.

        “Don was homeless once, too, so he understood. He also understood I had a disease and knew what I needed. So he dropped me at this church, and there I was in a room full of people with the same problem. I listened and I learned because I was in a room full of people I could identify with.

        “The first thing they taught me was to stop trying to do everything by myself. To ask for and accept help. The other thing I learned was that I never have to use drugs again. Or drink.”

        The lesson stuck.

        Today, he has a home (Over-the-Rhine), he's clean and sober (Jan. 2 was five years) and an advocate for the homeless. He's spoken about it to university classes, church and civic groups, even lobbied on their behalf in Cincinnati, Columbus and Washington.

        “It's been a long and not easy climb. One of the hardest things for me was to quit selling Street Vibes. Something turns your life around, it's hard to walk away.”

        But he did walk away and took a job at the Drop-In Center.

        “People here don't realize what a great facility that is. When I was first living there I couldn't understand why all these people from other states kept showing up to volunteer. I later realized they were there to study the program so they could do it in their hometowns.

        “And people like Don (Whitehead) will tell you, no one has a program as good as Cincinnati.

        “Did you know there are more animal shelters in this country than homeless shelters?

        “While I was living there, I realized I had a real desire to work with people trying to get clean, to help someone the way someone helped me. The Center allowed me to do that.

        “I really didn't know much about drugs so I took some courses and got myself certified as a counselor. What started interesting me was finding out what makes people start. People like me. I always felt I was so smart, but I did something so stupid.”

        What he discovered, he says, is that at least 30 percent of homeless people are also chemically dependent. “What I was hearing from people was, "I'm homeless, I've given up on society and society has given up on me. Why not use drugs, too?'

        “I figured if I could help them kick drugs, I could also get them off the street. It worked for me personally, so maybe I could apply it to others.

        “I guess a lot of people know about homelessness, but they don't know about homelessness. People think you're homeless because you want to be. Not true. You're homeless because you run out of choices.

        “My goal is to diminish the ranks of the homeless — to some day end homelessness in a drug-free city called Cincinnati.”

        That goal is the reason he enrolled in college in 1998 with an eye on a bachelor's in addiction studies. He'll get it in June. With honors.

        “After that, I want a master's in social work. With my certificate in counseling I can only help an individual. But with the social work degree, I'll be able to help the individual and the family surrounding him, and by extension that helps the community.

        “I talked to a church group once and told them H-O-P-E means Helping Other People Everyday. I believe that now more than ever.”

        Despite the commitment, Mr. Payton has some fears about grad school. He's male in a field where women outnumber men. He's 46 in a program where most people are 20 years younger.

        “But I've overcome fear before. I can do it again.

        “You know how I feel right now? It's like when someone has a really close brush with death then recovers and says, "I look at life altogether different now.'

        “That's me.”

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