Melvin: A Sweet Reunion!

“I’m going to my family reunion this year! – I didn’t think nobody cared about me, but they were going nuts…. And that really got to me……I promised myself I would not do that again to them.” 

He did not know that his family (two older brothers and two older sisters, a nephew, three sons and a daughter) were very concerned and actively filing missing person reports with the police over the last few months. 

“You miss all that (family) when you are out there – City Gospel Mission has definitely helped me re-connect with my family”. 

Melvin’s History

Melvin, 62, a Cincinnati native, has been homeless for the past 3 years.  He counts among the almost 5,000 estimated currently homeless adults in our area.  Sometimes he would couch surf, sometimes he would be out on the streets, most of the time feeling lonely, scared and disconnected.  He is significantly older than the median age of 40 for persons who are homeless in Cincinnati.  As a person with chronic mental health issues, he has access to medication through another agency, but homelessness and drug use blurred the motivation for regular mental health visits, obtaining and taking his prescribed medicine, and general self-care. 

A Desire for Change 

The journey is a long one, and Melvin knows this – as this is his third time being at City Gospel Mission, this time motivated by a real “want” to get off the streets and start caring about himself. Knowing that at City Gospel Mission there are “classes about the Gospel and about God”, he identifies a desire to get “back with that”.  He welcomes the 6:30 curfew and sees it as protective, as “a lot of things can happen out there…” 

 Melvin knows that change takes a long time, but small changes do add up to something.  Self-esteem at City Gospel Mission is nurtured by a clean safe bed and a warm shower: “Every day is a blessing – I don’t think about getting high or nothing like that.  My thing right now is my family.  This is me, myself. I kind of dig myself today. I can look at myself in the mirror – I’ve even taken a shave. That’s cool.”

“I’m all praises to the City Gospel Mission and God and Jesus” 

Thank you for reading this story of hope!