Karl Snyder is certainly a man who says, “It can be done.” He, like many successful residents coming through the men's program at The Baltimore Station, defies the skeptics by hoping and believing he can make a change in his life.  But there is one caveat. This change can only take place if he truly wants it.  Hard work, resolved determination and an abundance of support are needed to help carry Karl and other The Baltimore Station residents into a better life.

Growing up in East Baltimore, Karl was actively involved in athletics, playing baseball, basketball and football, but struggled with his academics. He decided to leave the 11th grade to attend an alternative school to earn his GED. Shortly after, he began working as a teacher's aid to help other students earn their GED ' s.  At age 20, he enlisted in the Navy and set on a journey that would bring great adventures but also start him down a course of destruction.  “I first picked up drugs and alcohol in the Navy,” recalls Karl, “It was just something that everybody did.”  He remained in the military for 6 years and even played shooting guard and small forward on the All-Navy Basketball Team. All the while, he continued to abuse drugs and alcohol.

After his military stint, he returned to Baltimore and dove deep into the drug life.  “When I came back everyone in the neighborhood was using. I thought I could use, but I wasn't going to be an addict. Man, I was wrong,” laments Karl.  For the next 11 years, he worked off and on for an explosives company, nursing home and moving company.  But his primary source of income was selling drugs.  Eventually, he could no longer keep up with the bills and he, his girlfriend and their two children became homeless. “We were put out on the street, but my mom and brother took us in,” explains Karl.  Wanting a fresh start, he decided it was time to leave Baltimore. “We picked up and moved to Cumberland and got our own place. But the drugs continued. I even took all the money out of my 401K to buy a car and began running drugs between Baltimore and Cumberland. This was our income,” he regrettably admits. 

The last eight months of his stay in Cumberland, he was arrested 3 times.  On the last occasion, the police raided his house and handcuffed everyone inside, including his two children who were 13 and 15 at the time. “That was the bottom for me,” Karl recalls, “Seeing my kids handcuffed laying on their stomachs on the floor was it.” After being convicted of drug possession, the Judge gave Karl an option to either go to jail for 8 years or enter a drug treatment facility. He opted for the treatment center. Because a person's chances of recovery are greater the longer he is in treatment, the Veteran's Administration recommended that Karl go to The Baltimore Station for more help.  Reluctantly, he entered the program on January 17, 1999 – two days after his 39th birthday. He stayed for 14 months.

“I didn't want to be here. It was a homeless station,” says Karl, “One guy actually told me I looked like I was going leap up and run out of here.  I never did, but that's how I felt.” There are several parts of the program that Karl believes worked for him, “First, therapy was a shock. I didn't want to hear ‘the real stuff'. Also, living with the guys was the pits, but it really helped having them there to tell me they had the same feelings and to wait and work through it. The counselors also kept telling us the same thing over and over and eventually it stuck. This place told and showed me how to live life differently.  If one suggestion didn't work, the counselors had another. It gave me something to stand on – a foundation.”  During his stay at The Baltimore Station, Karl used basketball as an outlet.  “Woody told me to get an outlet.  When I play basketball, I have no worries.  One of the counselors bought me a basketball and by the time I left the station, it was completely worn and deflated,” Karl says with a grin.

Today, he is a youth counselor at the Department of Juvenile Justice working with non-violent kids in lockdown facilities.  Most of the boys he works with are drug addicts and heading for a course of destruction which he knows too well. His past experiences, natural ability with kids and desire to help make him an excellent group leader, as well as a basketball coach. Karl is currently renting a house in South Baltimore, but plans to buy his first home this year.  He has many goals for the near future – going to college, watching his children graduate from college and being a good grandparent when his time comes. Both of his children who were handcuffed are doing well. The son is attending a community college and the daughter is heading to Morgan State after her high school graduation this year. Karl also has three other sons – the youngest in 10th grade, another struggling with drug addiction and the oldest at the University of Connecticut.
“Even though the drugs are gone, I still have issues and behaviors to deal with.  I'm still working on them,” stresses Karl.  Like all human beings, life is a journey and often full of challenges.  But Karl showed and continues to show that IT CAN BE DONE.

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