Walking 1,460 Miles In Their Shoes

t’s been over 1,100 miles, four states and a little more than four months since Stephen Millhouse, 53, marched away from his home town of Missoula, MT.  And no, he’s not a wannabe Forrest Gump guy that is walking just because he wants to. 

Instead, the US Marine veteran is doing a 1,460-mile walk which he calls “My One Man March for the Homeless” in effort to help raise money for the homeless people in the areas that he has toured in. Why such an odd number? 1460 miles is the average a homeless person walks in one year.

Last week, he hoofed it into Santa Cruz County during the wind storm that caused massive power outages, fallen trees and general mayhem. His arrival got little fanfare, but Millhouse took the time to speak with Patch about his journey and goals.

Millhouse was homeless for six years at one point of his life, first in Los Angeles and then in Missoula, so he knows what kind of shoes he’s walking in. With the help of Veterans Affairs—the VA—he received housing and medical needed to get back on his feet. 

Millhouse started to work as a janitor at the Missoula Children’s Theatre in February and now he finds himself as the founder of a non-profit organization.  He started his long journey in Montana and plans to end it in Los Angeles—at Skid Row to be exact.

Millhouse stopped in Watsonville on Thursday night. He walked on Freedom Boulevard to get here. But the amazing thing is he managed to do so with a 60-pound rig behind him in the pitch black through the strong gusty winds that caused the .    

His arrival to town wasn’t on the original route to Los Angeles. Millhouse was told by somebody in San Francisco that he needed to stop by Santa Cruz to check out the homeless scene there. But before he arrived into the 831, his walk over the Santa Cruz Mountains was another small journey in itself.

“I tried to get to Santa Cruz via 17 and the CHP thought it was dangerous, and the CHP saw me and they kicked me off.” said Millhouse.

“The one guy that kicked me off, the first guy, just dropped me off way off downhill.  And he gave me a weird route and it brought me right back to 17. And I had to sleep right next to the highway.” said Millhouse.  

The California Highway Patrol wasn’t the only problem he has encountered on his journey. Millhouse fractured his foot coming into Twin Falls, Idaho, where he developed the pain during the long trip. Luckily he had the VA to help him out and Millhouse managed to get X-rays on his foot, some much needed treatment and a state-of-the-art walking boot to assist him on his campaign.     

His set goal is to come up with $1 million and has only managed to come up with around $3,000 so far. Yet, it’s not the money that he cares about. What's more important to Millhouse increasing awareness for the issues amongst the homeless.

“The biggest goal was to try to get people to participate in their local communities, volunteering.” said Millhouse.

It’s hard to disagree with Millhouse here because most residents of a community in fact don’t make time to help volunteer at the local homeless shelter. Most of the time people throw their get spare change inside of an empty cup a homeless person holds then walk away. However, sometimes it’s not just tossing them a couple of loose coins that may help out.

“With homelessness, the biggest reward is just talking to them. It can be so rewarding to them, I mean it’s not all about giving them money. I was talking to this guy on the blog, it’s like ‘Yea, you don’t have to give them money, give them your time.'”

To get more in depth information about his non-profit organization, visit the official website atwww.MyOneManMarch.org.