2025 March
By a Joy Junction Staff Member (JBF)
Feeling discouraged and miserable on a daily basis eventually wears on the nerves and the mind. Feelings of sadness, aloneness, or hopelessness may well up in a person and cause them to shut down.
When someone gets to that point, there is usually a lack of motivation to do anything at all, let alone a job. If there are family members involved, that can cause an even deeper hit to their emotions because the person may feel they are letting their loved ones down.
Either way, it doesn’t take long before their confidence is gone, and being able to accomplish even one thing per day seems like an impossibility. The challenges of the day feel larger and larger as time passes.
Sometimes, depression sets in.
Maxwell (not his real name), experienced a similar situation. Here’s his story:
I’m not an alcoholic or a drug addict, but I do suffer with depression. A few months ago, I went into a deep decline. I think part of that came from being evicted from my apartment after living there for five years.
I got to the point of wanting to hurt myself.
I even seriously considered taking my life. Sometimes, it just hits like that. I knew I needed help, so I admitted myself into a treatment facility.
I remained homeless during my stay at the facility. So, when it came time to be released, I had nowhere to go. I researched the different shelters in the city and decided to come here [Joy Junction] because what they offer seemed to fit my needs more than the other places.
I joined the Christ in Power Program when I got here. Since I am not an addict, I wasn’t sure that the program would help me. But, it has. The Bible-based classes have helped my faith in the Lord grow. He and I have a relationship like no other in my life.
I believe in signs and I feel God led me here very clearly through the eviction, the treatment, and the program I found during my research. The program is helping me focus on God and not my problems.
Depression can hit a person at any time, but it’s probably a fair guess to think that someone who is homeless has a higher tendency toward that end. When there’s a feeling of hopelessness filling every cell in their body, it’s hard to have positive emotions.
For example, the loss of income and work can make a person feel useless. Then, that causes issues within the majority of the relationships that person has. Some people lose control and allow their frustrations to come out in the form of abuse toward others. That abuse can include mental, verbal, emotional, and even physical harm. That’s certainly not good.
Many times, people in that position have a hard time gaining the right kind of information to get help. Their mind is so focused on their problems, they wind up “digging a hole” deeper and deeper in their current situation.
Digging out of the “hole” they’ve been placed in is something we can help with. We provide a secure environment so our guests can stop focusing on where their next meal is coming from, or where they will be safe at night, and turn their attention toward how to get out of their homeless circumstance.
Maxwell, and other guests, work through their class meetings and homework assignments each weekday. They gain valuable knowledge to help them learn how to break free from bad habits and be introduced to new, positive, healthy habits.
We also have a Resident Resource Services staff member who meets with our guests to help them map out a plan for step-by-step goals, and assists them if they need to apply for food stamps, social security, and/or housing. Learning how to overcome their life’s hurdles and how to choose to be responsible for their decisions are both part of the steps they are introduced to.
Moving from dependency to self-reliance is a major part of each guest’s transformation process. It is our pleasure to work with them as they move through the steps toward a new life and reintegrate themselves into society with a job and a place of their own.
Identifying goals and developing skills is an important part of that transformation. We work hard to encourage and build the confidence of our guests. We want to help them make their dreams come true.
