TAMPA (FOX 13) – Three years ago, David Buck was just another homeless man seen in the area around Ybor City.

“I had zero hope, I had already given up,” Buck told FOX 13.

But some prayerful counseling helped him realize it was time to make a change.

He knew that he couldn’t have success at anything unless have gave up drinking. So that’s where he started.

“Three things happened to me in three days,” he said. “I got sober, I got a place to live, and I got a job.”

And that job on the Clean Team for the Tampa Downtown Partnership puts him in a unique position to give back to the Tampa homeless community he came out of.

“It gave me a spark of hope,” he said.

Buck now walks his beat doing clean up and counseling. He said he never wanted a handout from anyone.

“I have to put the work in. Nobody’s getting me up in the morning, I’m getting myself up to go to work, to take two buses,” he explained. “It’s not about me liking it, it’s about what’s necessary.”

So he spreads his success story with other homeless people he runs into in the downtown area.

“It’s about overcoming and not settling for where you’re at,” he said.

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