Homeless in Norwood

If you’ve been by the Norwood Common in the past two years or so, you’ve probably seen Chris Balliro sitting on the Gazebo.

He’s been a Norwood resident for more than two decades, living at the big building at 732 Washington St., but for the last two years and change, he’s been living outdoors.

Recently, resident Derek Marin has started a GoFundMe campaign to help get Balliro back on his feet. Go to https://gofund.me/534c3ba2d to donate.

Balliro said he grew up in a small house in Westwood, back “when nobody wanted to live in Westwood.”

His mother was able to send he and his brother Rudy to private school and summer camp, where he learned a love of ropes courses that took him far.

“It’s a nice town, but there wasn’t a lot to do,” he said. “I grew up in the woods a lot, so it was a lot of fun, did the Reservation Camp, you know, canoeing sailing, and they had a ropes course. And I became a rigger because of that. I have no fear of heights.”

Balliro said he worked for Cirque du Soleil and Cavalia, as well as working for numerous concerts and shows over the decades at venues like Fenway Park and the Comcast Center.

“We used to set up all the big tent shows, and you basically had to be able to rock climb, you know, ascend and descend and all that and it was ridiculous money,” he said. “We even did a Good Morning America show once with Cavalia in Somerville for one of those big horse shows.”

Balliro said he’s had good experiences with famous musicians and some not so good. He said, for instance, Lady Gaga was playing in Boston and he and about 200 stage hands were working the show. He said she asked them if they were going out when the show was done to have a good time in the city.

“She was like, ‘When you’re all done make sure you go out and get a bunch of drinks,’ and we were like, ‘This is Boston, all the bars close at 2 a.m.,’” he said. “She said, ‘This is unacceptable!’ and her tour was sponsored by Jack Daniels at the time and she gets this huge case and starts driving around this huge venue. There are like 200 of us and she’s handing out all these bar bottles of Jack Daniels to everybody. She was great like that.”

Balliro said most venues make you sign a waiver saying you won’t talk to the talent unless they talk to you. And one time, during a particular show when a particular singer of a band – one who’s known for not being such a nice guy – actually kicked he and a friend out of the show because his friend said “good show” to the singer when they got off stage.

“He said, ‘Please don’t talk to me,’” he said.

Balliro said he broke into a song that the singer sings that had a similar sentiment.

“And the band literally started doing the backing vocals!” he said with a laugh. “The singer got so pissed he threw me and my buddy off the gig. But people were applauding us and the band was giving us a thumbs up. Other than that, most people are pretty cool.”

Balliro is currently living at the Hampton Inn on Route 1, and he needs more money to stay in the hotel. He sat in the hotel lobby, eating a big continental breakfast and reflecting that he felt it could always be worse. Even when he was at the gazebo, he was thankful for being in Norwood, at least.

Balliro’s situation isn’t unique. He had been living at the building on the corner of Washington and Guild for years, but in the past two years, he seemingly lost everything.

In 2021, his brother Rudy passed away due to heart complications. He said his mother’s health started to fail shortly thereafter, dying almost a year after their mother. He had been experiencing troubles with his landlord at the time as well – the third landlord in as many years.

“They took me to court after they sold my building then, and by that point I didn’t even care,” he said.

Balliro said a short time before that, he was injured on the job at the Comcast Center. An amplifier basically fell on him when loading up a show, and while he said he was able to complete a worker’s compensation case for it, all the money went either to his landlord – the one he’d known for decades, the first one – and his lawyer. He still has serious issues with his spine, causing him numbness and loss of motion.

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Then the new landlord tripled his rent, almost three times what he was receiving from disability. He said when they finally evicted him, they took, or lost, or threw out, allegedly, his collection of guitars. Balliro is an accomplished musician in his own right, citing many local favorites in the Boston music scene he’s played with and worked with over the years. During that time, he was able to bring musicians together to help increase their bargaining power, and worked with the local union of stage hands for he and his fellow workers in the business.

He said losing the guitars was tough. He had a serious collection, some of which were serious collector’s items with hefty price tags. He lamented the loss of his Japanese-built Fender Stratocaster, which can fetch a high price, but he said the loss of his computer hurt the most.

“I had everything I ever recorded on there, the music I recorded myself, playing guitar, drums, vocals, bass, everything,” he said. “I don’t even remember how I played it, I can’t play it anymore.”

In talking with Balliro there is a sense of optimism that could be called infectious, even when talking of all his loss. In his situation it’s easy to imagine losing hope. He said he’s experienced great people here in Norwood while on the Common, and some not so great. He said a white supremacist harassed him and others at the gazebo, once even throwing water on them during a cold night and running off. But even when recounting the story, he expressed thankfulness. He said at first, when the water was thrown, he was angry, but felt that it can always be worse. And now, Balliro said he’s looking to start playing again. His eyes lit up noticeably when he said this, and he hopes to start recording again.

“Once I got hurt, I couldn’t feel my hand and couldn’t play for a while and it was just like I felt like I didn’t have anything to say and took away from when I used to practice 18 hours a day saying ‘I want to be the best guitarist in the world!’” he said. “Now I’m starting to feel that drive again.”

Balliro has been working with Common Housing Application for Massachusetts Programs and the Norwood Housing Authority to find a place to live, and started the process well before he was evicted. He said he’s gone through the application process 14 times, and has had issues getting through, but having a place to stay while going through it has been helpful, especially now, as he noted the temperature outside on Tuesday morning was below 20 degrees.

He remains hopeful, and thankful to Norwood residents for any help they can give. When asked why he remained in Norwood when Boston has a lot more housing resources, he said some of those places can be dangerous, and so he didn’t want to go there. But also, he said Norwood has its own unique charm.

“I had my storage here, and anyone I knew or friends was here, and you know what? I never expected it to take this long,” he said. “Boston is much more rough, and it’s nicer being here.”

Again, to help out, go to https://gofund.me/534c3ba2d