A Place to Call Home - Denver Rescue Mission

Like so many others, Jerome simply couldn’t afford rent. After spending years experiencing homelessness and enduring winters on the streets, he came to the Mission at a moment of surrender. Here, he found a pathway out of homelessness and into a place to call home.

“I remember getting up in the morning after sleeping outside on church steps and trying to walk. My feet were numb. It was so cold. I thought alcohol would warm me up, but it didn’t. It just made me colder. It was terrible.”
Jerome

As Jerome thinks back on the winters he spent on the streets, he can’t help but be in disbelief over what he experienced. “Wow. It’s just hard to believe now,” he said.

He spent about eight years experiencing homelessness, consumed by drugs and alcohol. After years of staying in shelters and on the streets, Jerome finally hit his lowest point.

“I was not wanting to give up the drugs and alcohol. But in 2007, everything changed,” he said. “God just showed me a new way.”

Jerome was hungry and someone pointed the way to a place called Christ’s Body Ministries, where he could get something to eat. “They helped me get my life together, clean up and give my life to the Lord,” he said.

Jerome was a volunteer and worked for them for four years. It was a place for him to help others like he was helped.

He remembers the Christmases in particular that he would spend serving meals. “We would go out and give people on the street, like I was, hot meals,” Jerome said. “Some of them would see me and say, ‘Hey, I remember you were out here and now look at you.’ So that’s a good testimony for the Lord.”

Wanting to continue helping others, Jerome then got a job with Hope Center where he facilitates activities in the community for adults with disabilities. However, he also needed a new place to live, and when he couldn’t find anything he could afford, Jerome came to Denver Rescue Mission.

“Back then, Christmas was just like another day. At the time, I was still doing drugs and alcohol, so I didn’t really think about it. But once I gave my life over to Jesus and got into housing, Christmas has been pretty good.”

– Jerome

“Going to Denver Rescue Mission really helped me out. I did counseling, Bible studies, started a budget, and started putting money in a savings account,” he said. “Just having a safe place to call home, and not be outside, I just really appreciate what they did for me.”

Jerome lived at The Crossing where he was able to continue working and save money for a place to live. After six months, he moved into a shared, sober living home, thanks to the Mission’s Pathway Home program. This program connects individuals and families with a case manager and needed support that may be financial or community based.

“I couldn’t do it on my own,” he said. “When I left that room at The Crossing, I thought, somebody else is now in that room and is able to get the help that I got.”

As Jerome thinks back on who he was on that bitter winter night on the streets, he is grateful to God for leading him to where his is now. Thanks to God, to the Mission and to people who truly care, Jerome found a path home. “This is a path home. Exactly,” he said.