Our Stories
I have lived in West Bend for about 14+ years. What caused me to become homeless was I became addicted to drugs at about 15. I soon started struggling to support myself, and eventually brought me here. I would say there are two things that make it 
difficult being homeless. The first is not having a stable home. When you don’t have a stable home you don’t have an address to call your own. Something you can write down on a application for a job. I would say the other struggle is the way people view you. Family Promise helped change me. I mean the fact that you have to be sober to live here that along hold you to a standard I wasn’t even holding myself too. I got a job. I have been able to save up for a car and build me independence. I have even been able to start working on building/repairing my relationship with my family. Every bit of Family Promise has helped me but the part that has helped me the most is the case management meeting I have to attend. The case managers hold you accountable for yourself. I would not be where I am today without them.
“Our family came from Fond du Lac city. We were about to buy a house with my fiancé whom I just had a little baby girl with. We had six kids…When our daughter was 2 weeks old, I found child porn on his phone…We left and came to my nephew’s house that had six dogs, his girlfriend was pregnant, and they were renovating their entire house…We left my nephews and came to Family Promise…Family Promise never judged us….They were phenomenal when I found out I had stage 4 breast cancer. They made sure we had everything we needed.”
“I have been sober since March 9, 2020. What caused my homelessness was the addiction I had and my incarceration. Family Promise provided me with safe, sober living, where I could work on myself by myself. They provided me with structured transitional housing, where I was still held accountable for my sobriety. I would say that the hardest part of being homeless is starting over.”
A Promising Future
Jill and her three children joined Family Promise in December of 2015. It was apparent from the beginning that she would use Family Promise as a resource to achieve her goals of getting a job, obtaining an apartment, and organizing her son’s surgery. Jill showed so much motivation upon entering the program that later in December Jill and her children moved into one of Family Promise’s St. Vincent DePaul apartments just in time for Christmas. Due to Jill’s lack of stability with housing, Jill’s son was not able to have a necessary surgery, but in January because they were living in one of Family Promise apartments he was able to have the operation. After her son’s surgery, Jill continued to apply for jobs and look for apartments. Then in March Jill got approved for an apartment and moved into their new home on April 1st. Shortly after moving out, Jill obtained a job as a waitress. As a result of Jill’s perseverance, Family Promise provided her with rent assistance so she and her family could have a smooth transition in their new home. Family Promise is happy to say that after helping Jill with 2 months of rent assistance, she and her children continue to live in their apartment, Jill is gaining fans as a wonderful waitress, and her son was able to have his second surgery.