It takes a village to help a homeless person regain stability!

Last week a client came in to the Dignity Center to report on his life changes.  We had been working with him off and on for more than 4 ½ years, but we hadn’t seen him for the past year.  He was estatic about his new found stability.  Here’s what’s happened in two years:

• He is clean and sober, having gone through chemical dependency treatment for approximately the 6^th or 7^th time.  This time his sobriety seems to be sticking. He says he has changed his friends and attends AA several times per week, which helps sobriety stick.
• He has dealt with several significant health issues such as diabetes and knee replacements.
• He has an apartment, which he tells me is immaculate.
• He is attending church regularly and does some volunteer work through the church.
• He got a part- time job at a thrift store which he is pleased about.
• He is in the process of reconnecting with his children, whom he hasn’t seen consistently for many years.

The largest question is: What factors helped him get stable this time, as compared with the other times he tried to get stable, but couldn’t sustain it.  I was really interested in hearing his answer to this question, especially since the Dignity Center hadn’t been involved with helping him with his process for the past year.  He said the following:

• The staff at the Dignity Center always treated him with respect and hopefulness, despite his relapses and back-sliding.  We gave him hope and encouragement that he could change his life and remain stable.  He liked having relationships with several advocates with whom he could touch base from time to time.
• He needed the services from specialized providers: people who could help him get into housing; a chemical dependency treatment program; his church; a job program for seniors; AA meetings etc.
• He said that the turning point for him in really working on getting stable was an internal desire to do something meaningful with his life to contribute to the community.

From talking with this client, it seems clear to me that to help homeless people regain stability, the whole community needs to be involved in the process by providing an array of services that homeless people need to regain stability. And they need these services for the long-haul. Getting out of homelessness is a process that may take up to two years as the client works on one goal after the other.

Ann C.