Justin works at a local nonprofit that helps people experiencing homelessness – who live in their vehicles – find shelter, services, and eventually permanent housing. He is passionate about his work because he has real empathy for the people he serves — he used to live on the street himself.
Justin had been outside for nearly a decade before he found Compass.
“In the past, I had experienced short-term periods, like a month or three-month periods of homelessness,” he said. “But this last time, things didn’t work out like that. I checked out every organization and every resource, and through that journey, Compass was one of the places I found. I first found it by getting a shower at the Compass Center.”
Justin didn’t find housing with us right away, but no matter where he was, it always stuck to him that Compass was a resource that he could trust. You can help us continue to be a trusted resource by sending in a gift today.
“When I saw that there was a chapel there at the Compass Center, that meant a lot to me,” he said. “My faith, my relationship with my faith, was so important to me. I don’t know if I would even be here if not for that. Seeing that chapel, that stuck with me.”
Justin stayed on the street for another four years, but then he decided that it was time to go back to the neighborhood that meant so much to him, Ballard. He was able to find support to get sober, and he found Compass again at Nyer.
“Ballard feels comfortable,” he said. “It exudes a solidity about it. There’s compassion here AND old-school ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps.’ I like that spectrum because I can go either way.”
He moved into Nyer after being referred, and right away, he started using the resources that Compass provides, like our partnership with Neighborcare.
Once he was stable, he started looking for work, and he wanted to give something back to the community. So, using his own lived experience, he found work at a nonprofit that does outreach to people experiencing homelessness.
“It was important for me to give back,” he said. “I was given comfort and hope by so many people, and I want to be a source for that for others.”
Right now, you can be a source of hope for the community by giving a year-end gift to Compass.
Our priorities are unwavering: we focus on providing services, enhanced emergency shelters, and affordable housing so everyone has a safe place to call home — even if it takes them years to make it to us.