Lowman confident he'll soon be off the streets

Things aren’t going especially well for Paul Lowman right now, but he’s convinced they won’t stay that way for long.

Lowman, 39 and a Morganton native, is currently homeless. He’s quick to lay the blame for his misfortunes on himself, but says he’s getting his act together. He’s also sure a lot of other unsheltered people have it worse.

 “I get along with everybody,” he says. “I’m the kind of person who can go and talk to anybody. I buy people drinks if I can, loan out cigarettes if I can. I don’t have to scrap metal or go fly a sign. I’m pretty well off. I’m one with my head on my shoulders. I’m just trying to get a place. Another month and I’m going to be off these streets.”

Lowman’s path to the streets began like many others in recent decades, with an opioid prescription after an injury at work. He also got hooked on methamphetamine.

He moved to Wilmington with his girlfriend, but some relationship problems – he found out the twins his fiance delivered actually belonged to another man – sent him scrambling back home to Burke County.

 Living with family just wasn’t in the cards for Lowman, so now, he stays at the House of Refuge homeless shelter on Murphy Street. It costs $3 per night, and Lowman is glad to pay it.

He’s been clean for two weeks and considers it a good start.

 “I just cleaned up about two weeks ago,” he says. “I don’t want to do it no more. I see it every day, I see people on it, when they’re out of it, like in psychosis. I’ve been there before and addiction is hard, man. When you don’t have it, it’s just like your whole body craves it.”

 Lowman said he eventually got to the point where using opioids became more about keeping withdrawal symptoms at bay than actually getting high.

 “It wasn’t getting high; it was more of not getting sick,” he says.

 Lowman is on suboxone now. He says it helps with the opioids but not the meth.

 He remains determined to get off the streets and is sure it will happen soon.

“I’m not going to be out here long, trust me,” Lowman insists.

 He admits he hates the stigma attached to homelessness and his voice cracks with emotion as he talks about the indignities unsheltered people suffer.

“You’ve got your bad ones, and when people see homeless people they think they’re all on drugs, but s..t happens to people, man,” Lowman says.

 “If there was one thing I could say to people it’s don’t include everybody in that same category.

 “Before you judge somebody, maybe take the time to sit down and talk to some of these people. Ask someone about their story.” 

Marty Queen is the senior reporter for The Paper. He may be reached at 828-445-8595 or at marty@thepaper.media.