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ALBANY, GEORGIA -- By looking at him today you might never think that William Livingston was once homeless.

“Being a business owner, former educator, former professional wrestler. I've done it all seen it all,” said Livingston.

While that makes for a heck of a resume it wasn’t enough to keep away the hard times that forced him to live on the streets two years ago.

“I found myself in 2008 with congestive heart failure and that was health issue that devastated my life and that point I lost everything,” said Livingston.

The year that he spent on the streets was one of the toughest times of his life.

“If you've been secured in the home and you find yourself where you don't know where you're going to sleep the next night, don’t even know where your next meal is going to come from,” said Livingston.

Today he is an advocate to help the homeless.

On Wednesday Livingston was on hand as the Albany Dougherty County Coalition to End Homelessness kicked off a new campaign to end homelessness.
 
“We've invited community partners from all over the community to come together to hear the work of the community and what’s going on to assist the coalition to build a ten year written plan to end homelessness in our community,” said David Blackwell.

Advocates say that homelessness is a much bigger problem in Albany, than people realize, and your typical homeless person does not fit the mold of your pan handler stereotype.

“We’ve surveyed in the past year and had 309 completed surveys and that means those are the people that chose to participate and those are trough numbers of those that are the HUD definition of homeless,” said Blackwell.

Livingston says everyone has different reasons that put them on the streets.

“Don’t judge me you don't know my story. But I am willing to share you my story, because I have a legitimate need. And I am not looking for a hand out I am just looking for a hand so I can help myself,” said Livingston.