Butler resident Dave Hovis, 66, has advice for those looking down their noses at the homeless people they see around town and in the parks, because he's been there.

“They're not all bad,” Hovis said. “They made a couple left turns when they should have made right turns, that's all.”

Hovis' lifestyle of drinking and an addiction to painkillers in the 1990s led him into a downward spiral he only emerged from in recent years. He found himself sleeping in Butler Memorial Park after wearing out his welcome with family and friends.

“I was a hell-raiser,” said the affable Army veteran. “I liked to fight and drink. Anything illegal I could do.”

Hovis was content sleeping under a park bench, where he would pray and talk to his late parents, who are buried in a cemetery off North Main Street hill.

Hovis would also spend the long nights recalling his days as a baseball player in the East Butler leagues of the 1960s and 1970s and at Butler High School, where his coach told him he could turn pro if he wanted.

“But I liked to drink,” he said with a faraway look.

'Would Jesus do this?'

A few years ago, when the encroaching chilly weather made the park inhospitable and no friends would have him because of his drinking problem, Hovis visited the Center for Community Resources on South Main Street.

It was a decision that proved a turning point for Hovis.

They sent him to Grace Youth and Family Foundation on South Monroe Street, where director Bill Halle maintains a seasonal shelter that provides overnight accommodation to the homeless.

“Bill Halle and his wife changed my life,” Hovis said. “He's a Christian and a good man.”

Hovis said he copied Halle's upstanding lifestyle of doing the right thing and attending church.

“None of us are like Jesus, but we can try to be,” he said. “That's what I say now, 'Would Jesus do this?' And if it's 'no', I don't do it.”

After a few winters at Halle's facility and a rough stint in a veterans home where temptations to revert to his old lifestyle were many, Hovis worked with Veterans Affairs to find his small apartment on South Main Street.

A large room serves as his bedroom, living room and dining room, and a small kitchen and bathroom round out the living quarters.

The landlord donated a bed, dresser, dining room table and chairs and other furniture to Hovis when a former tenant was admitted to Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and no longer needed the items.

It's not a palace, but Hovis loves his home. He feeds the birds and squirrels and tends a few tomato plants off his front porch. Recently a spotted fawn found its way into his small yard and he watched with delight as its mother came and collected the youngster.

“It's quiet, clean and away from everybody,” he said. “The kids skateboard across the street and I sit out here and watch them.”

The VA helps Hovis with the rent, which he pays with the disability payments he receives as a result of a car accident several years ago. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash and remained in a coma for three months.

On to a nicer place

The VA last month took him shopping with $200 they provided for curtains, kitchenware and other household necessities.

These days, when Hovis sees a homeless person, he springs into action — asking if they are hungry and immediately procuring some kind of food for them.

“Then I tell them which churches have meals,” he said.

His advice to any homeless person is to simply walk into any church and ask for help.

As for his future, Hovis will continue his hobby of reconditioning and restoring old wooden items like sleds and the 1930s wooden hobbyhorse he is preparing for his great nieces and nephews.

“I want to live a clean life and help people,” Hovis said, “and I want to encourage homeless people.”

He knows falling back into the destructive cycle of alcoholism and drugs is never far away, but has a plan when temptation arises.

“Temptations are tough,” he said. “I say the Lord's Prayer. It's an amazing prayer.”

Hovis is appreciative of his current status and humble home.

“I wake up every morning and look around and I say 'It's nice here,'” he said.