Milwaukee bus driver helps homeless man stay warm, find shelter

A Milwaukee bus driver is being praised for her kindness last month after she helped provide food to a homeless man and helped him find a place to live.

On Oct. 13, Natalie Barnes was driving the GoldLine bus when a rider named Richard, who she had met before, got on.

He rode until the end of the line and during Barnes’ break, they struck up a conversation. Richard told her the home he had been staying at had been condemned, leaving him homeless for about a week. He asked her if he could stay on the bus and ride along with her for the night to stay out of the cold.

Barnes said yes.

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“At some point in our lives, everybody needs help,” she said in a release published by the Milwaukee County Transit System. “I wanted to do what I could to help Richard in some way.”

During the trip, Richard sat quietly on the bus and during Barnes’ layover, she offered to get him something to eat.

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“Now I don’t know what to say but to say thank you,” he said in a video published by MCTS.

Richard said he would pay her back, but she refused, telling him she just wanted to help him.

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“Richard is a passenger that I’ve seen on several occasions. We have several conversations and this is the first time he’s had an immediate need,” Natalie told CBS-affiliate WDJT. “I just felt the need that you know, this is like a distant family. I see you every day, so I felt like I needed to help him. I couldn’t go home to my family knowing he had nowhere to go at night.”

According to the transit system, Barnes went a further step by contacting a friend at Community Advocates to see if they’d be able to find him a place to live. Following the call, the organization was able to get Richard into a temporary shelter and are assisting him in finding permanent housing.

It was just the latest instance of the city’s bus drivers helping people in need.

In August, a driver helped reunite a toddler with her mother after she was found crying and wandering the streets. In May, another driver helped a boy after he fell off his bike by giving him a ride to school.

An MCTS spokesperson told Global News that their drivers’ responses may partially be a result of a workplace culture established with a big push on customer service while using their technology to tell their stories.