A 19-year-old in Virginia who was homeless while in high school is now on his way to college with many scholarship offers. Jherlymax “Max” Jones lived in his car while schooling, describing the vehicle as his best friend after moving from North Carolina to Virginia to escape a chaotic home to rebuild his life.
“For me it represents adulthood,” the Richmond High School for the Arts senior said of his car. “That Acura was like my first, first official car that I got my license with.”
For many months while in high school, Max worked at a local restaurant after school. He ate, slept and did almost everything out of his car. He would even run the car for heat during the winter to keep warm.
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“It was just long, long months of me just not having anywhere to go,” Max said. “I want people to know that there are people like me in the world. I went through a lot.”
Max grew up in Wilson, North Carolina with his mother and half siblings. They struggled to put food on the table, making stable housing even more difficult to come by, Max told 11Alive.
He said his mom “did work a lot when we were growing up, an extreme amount,” and being in this tough environment, Max had to start helping his mother take care of the home and his half siblings. Later, the father of his half siblings came back for them, leaving Max and his mom alone to fend for themselves.
“As they were pulled away, that’s when my mom started getting pulled away more mentally,” Max said.
He eventually decided to leave home to face the world. “I want to do better, I want to be better, I’m tired of waking up hungry, I know my life is bad so I took the bus, I paid for a ticket,” Max said.
Max first stayed with his girlfriend in Richmond and later found himself jumping from multiple homes to ultimately buying his first car with the money he saved from the work he did after school. He then started living out of the vehicle.
“I still wore the same clothes. They were never clean; they were never dirty. They were just the same clothes. Like sweats, joggers, Crocs,” Max said. “Nobody would ever have known as, ‘Oh yeah, he’s homeless,’ I even had some people think I was a suburbs kid.”
Along the way, some of his teachers and mentors realized his need and often helped with food while paying for him to live in hotels. Soon, Pastor Robert Winfrey of a nearby church in Richmond heard of his plight and decided to help.
“I didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in my warm bed knowing that he was living in his car,” Winfrey said. “I wanted to make sure that he wasn’t completely dismantled because of his homeless situation.”
After the two had a conversation, Winfrey told Max that he could live in the church’s cottage until he graduated. With his newfound home, Max was able to concentrate more on his studies, and now he is headed to college.
“I’m going to change the world and I’m going to give back to everybody that gave to me. Everybody.”
Max said he has received over $100,000 in scholarships and has been offered full scholarships to Paine College in Georgia, Virginia Union University in Richmond and Ohio State.
