Detroit artist paints to help city’s homeless

DETRIOIT (NewsNation Now) — Every person has a story to tell, but not everyone has people willing to listen to it.

In cities and town across America, there are men, women and children who are homeless; they too have a story to tell.

That’s where Scott Schaible comes in. He’s an artist in Detroit, Michigan, using his gift to shed a light on people experiencing homelessness. He takes their photographs, then paints portraits of them.

Each unique face Schaible encounters, living on the streets of Detroit, has a different journey.

Schaible has captured people’s humanity through his lens. He spearheaded Faces of Detroit under the guidance of Brian Peterson, who founded the national project, called Faces of Mankind.

“I think often these individuals are overlooked, and I really wanted to just try and tell their story to people and show them in kind of a new light so they can see themselves as something more,” Schaible said.

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“Every person has been different so far, and they’ve all told a different story,” he continued. “I’ve learned so much from each person, and I think what’s been a major takeaway from me is that I’ve been able to learn so much from somebody who’s come from very different backgrounds than I have, and I think it’s been awesome to learn that.”

As he makes an impact on the Detroit community, Schaible says he’s learned there are misconceptions people have around homelessness.

“I think one big misconception is people don’t really want to find a job or they’re kind of lazy. There’s a lot of factors that go into it, and I think they’re some mental health issues, of course, some drug addiction issues going on as well,” Schaible said. “And a lot of it has stemmed from, unfortunately, broken families and childhoods not being a great start for individuals.”

Schaible says he hopes people can see that they can use their gifts to be a blessing to their neighbors after viewing his artwork.

“We’re all given a specific gift to use, and I think if we just kind of take a step out to use them, we’ll be a blessing to someone we don’t even know,” he said.

If you’d like to learn more about the Faces of Detroit, click here.

You can watch the full interview in the player above.