Ursa Worlds sits on the porch of her daughter’s home on North 31st Street as her granddaughter rides her bike.
World recently returned to Milwaukee from Beloit and is currently at the Boudicca House, which provides transitional housing and other programs for homeless women veterans. “They help you with employment, they help you with, you know, whatever issues you might have.”
An Air Force veteran who lived in Milwaukee from 2001 to 2009, Worlds began using drugs during her time in the city and, eventually, became addicted to crack cocaine. “It was not nice, of course,” she said.
Growing up in Beloit, Worlds was one of seven brothers and sisters who were all raised in foster homes. After her stint in Milwaukee, where she lived near 21st and Hampton and 104th and Capitol, Worlds stopped using and returned to Beloit.
What happened? “[I] just got tired of the lifestyle,” she said. “[Drugs are] just not a way of life…it just really reduces you to nothing.”
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And Beloit was the breath of fresh air that Worlds needed. “It’s nothing like it is here where it’s really segregated…everybody lives together.”
Worlds said she believes that kind of integration just helps to make you a more well-rounded person. “I think it’s better when people live together – it gives you more of a perspective.”
Eventually, though, Worlds lost her job and her unemployment stopped last December. So, she returned to Milwaukee to pick up the pieces.
What’s next for Worlds? “Well, really my whole thing right now…is just to chill and, you know, take baby steps and get yourself back together, try to find employment.”
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