A Season of Hope: How Katie Rebuilt Her Family’s Future

When Katie’s landlord hiked the rent by $1,000 overnight, everything unraveled at once. Suddenly Katie, her husband, and their four kids had nowhere to go. In the Winter of 2022, they arrived at New Directions Family Shelter.

She recalls coming to New Directions. “For the first time in months, it felt like we could breathe.” With a safe place to sleep and a plan to follow, the family began to heal. They played badminton in the yard. They laughed again. Holidays at New Directions were “lights, warmth, and the feeling that we were going to be okay.”

Katie has never shied away from hard work. Even while her family entered the shelter, she kept working long security shifts, often as the only woman on shift, because that’s who she is: a determined, hard-working, mother who always does what needs to be done.

Katie never stopped moving forward. She finished her GED in just two weeks, enrolled in college for law enforcement, and is earning A’s, on track for the academy next. “I want to serve people who feel unseen,” she says. “I’ve been there.” Her husband is rebuilding, too, studying boat and diesel mechanics while managing the lasting effects of a traumatic brain injury, pushing through fatigue and setbacks, one class, one repair, one good day at a time.

If Katie’s story sounds rare, the risk behind it isn’t. In the United States, more than half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, effectively one crisis away from homelessness, according to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

New Directions turned Katie’s crisis into a comeback. Case managers helped her map clear, patient steps - budgeting, transportation, school enrollment, job pathways, and celebrated each box she checked. After just over a year at New Directions, Katie’s family was financially stable enough to move into transitional housing and once again have a place of their own to call home.

“Home,” Katie says, “is where you can finally exhale, where your family feels safe and whole. That’s what New Directions gave us.” This season, Katie’s family will hang stockings in a home that’s truly their own, because people like you chose to care.