Maurice’s hope story: “The Bowery Mission gave me my life back”

Through the Mission’s emergency shelter and Residential Program, Maurice found stability in his relationships, finances and spiritual life.

Maurice’s life felt like a roller coaster, filled with highs and lows. His parents split up before he was born, and he moved around a lot as a child. He struggled to find stability, first with college and then with jobs. Still, he felt fortunate for his upbringing — he was close with his parents and extended family.

He had hoped to find stability in his relationship with his longtime friend-turned-girlfriend. They built a life together, eventually sharing a home and starting a family. But unfortunately, this didn’t last. Over the years, conflict came to define their relationship, which sadly came to an end during the pandemic.

Maurice’s life fell into decline. He moved in with his mother and struggled to hold a job. Just about every dollar he earned went to his mother and his children. “I always try to look out for the people around me first,” says Maurice. And when his mom lost the house, he found himself facing homelessness. “I was at the end of losing literally every single support system. I lost all my possessions, my family fell apart, and my relationships with my siblings and my friends got so strained at that point. There was nobody that I could lean on but Jesus.” 

Finding hope at rock bottom

A social worker referred him to The Bowery Mission. Maurice remembers the first night he stayed at the Mission’s emergency shelter at 90 Lafayette Street: “I had done community work before, and worked with less fortunate people, but now I’m on the other side of the glass, which is daunting. I [was] trying very hard to wrap my head around the fact that this is where my life is now.”

“I had all my possessions in a rolling suitcase,” he says, “and that’s when it hit me: Man, you’ve hit rock bottom.” But, he also remembers being so grateful for the fact that The Bowery Mission was there.

Maurice came to the Mission for meals and emergency shelter. But he knew early on that this would be temporary. He embraced recovery and leaned into every resource that the Mission had to offer. He especially enjoyed chapel and getting to know Pastor Jason. “I could just tell that this was a man who was very much dedicated to what he was doing,” he shares.

At the same time, Maurice was still able to stay involved in his children’s lives. In the afternoons, he would walk from the Mission to the Staten Island Ferry, pick his son up from school and spend time with him, then return to his bed at the Mission in the evening.

“The way that things were working out, you just see God’s hand [over everything].” — Maurice

Achieving stability

After a month, Maurice joined our Residential Program. He’s very grateful for his counselor, Jose. He explains, “I know God brought Jose into my life. He’s always been my greatest advocate, my greatest friend here.” Jose helped Maurice through times when his faith was tested the hardest.

The Mission’s clinical team worked to help him address and heal from past trauma. “It’s dialed down so much anxiety for me. I’ve always had kind of like an underlying anxiety. [I didn’t] have the ability to control the environment around [me]. I feel like now I have the ability to manage my environment and my situations and my own life today.”

Maurice also enjoyed the camaraderie within the community. He openly shared his testimony and spoke about his faith and relationship with Jesus. Through classes and transformative community, day by day, Maurice grew in faith and rebuilt his life. He graduated from our program after eight months. 

He beams, “Compared to life before the Mission, I have a stable job now and I have not only money in my pocket, but I have the stability of knowing where my next paycheck is coming from. And I have Jesus at the forefront.” 

Thanks to the love and encouragement that friends like you made possible, Maurice has found the stability he has long sought — with his job, housing and relationship with his children. He’s very grateful for the Mission and for kind supporters like you who made his healing journey possible. “This is God’s work,” he says. “The Bowery Mission literally gave me my life back.”