He doesn’t hold a sign begging for money. He’s been married for 13 years. His clothes don’t outwardly appear dirty and his breath doesn’t smell of alcohol. This is Clarence Jones, and he doesn’t seem homeless. But he is. Clarence is a hurricane Katrina survivor now in Austin from New Orleans because FEMA placed him here. He and his wife Lisa were two of the first 50 people to arrive in Austin after being shuttled from Louisiana. Four days after arriving he had a heart attack and now his only income is from a monthly disability check.

On cold nights when the temperature doesn’t quite get to freezing, Clarence and Lisa huddle together by themselves, or sometimes with a few others that he says he knows he can trust. Other times, they walk around all night until they can get into the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, or ARCH, in the morning to rest.

On freezing nights, he makes sure that his wife can get into a shelter such as the Salvation Army before he tries to secure a place to sleep. The ARCH only accepts men at night so he’s forced to spend the night alone if they both want a warm place to sleep.

Either way, it’s a hard way to live and he’s positive that he won’t be living on the streets much longer. Recent events might prove otherwise however because he was admitted to the hospital two days ago due to chest pains.

Peter Gaunt photographed, wrote and produced this story.