Chris’ Story: Nearly Two Years Later, He Is Still Moving Forward

When we last shared Chris’ story in June of 2025, he was eight months sober and beginning to imagine what life beyond New Directions of Horry County might look like. His goals were straightforward but significant: maintain his sobriety, find steady employment, save money and eventually move into a place of his own. Nearly two years into sobriety, Chris isn’t just imagining that future anymore. He’s building it.

Today, Chris lives at Oxford House, recovery home, where he has been for nearly a year. He has maintained steady employment with a landscaping company, saved a significant sum of money and recently reached a milestone he hadn’t achieved in a decade: getting his driver’s license back. For someone who once struggled simply to imagine a stable future, Chris is now actively planning for one.

Chris works out regularly, rides his bike, attends AA meetings and has become a sponsor to others in recovery. It’s a role he doesn’t take lightly. Chris knows what it feels like to believe no one understands what you have been through. Now, his own experiences allow him to tell someone struggling that recovery really is possible.

“When I tell you that you can do it, trust me and believe it,” he said. “I know that you can do it because I’m doing it.”

Although Chris no longer lives at New Directions, he hasn't left the community behind.

On days he isn't working, he frequently returns to the Men’s Shelter. He remains close with the staff members who walked alongside him during some of his most difficult years, particularly Men’s Shelter Director Jonathan Myers and Executive Director William Howsare.

Chris also wants people in the community to understand that homelessness and addiction are more complicated than the stereotypes surrounding them.

“Sometimes we just get twisted up in life, and we don’t know what to do,” he said. “We just don’t have a direction.”

For Chris, New Directions became the place where he could land long enough to find one.

“Without this place, there’s no chance that I’m where I am today. If this place wasn’t here, there’s no place for a lot of these guys to land,” Chris said. “There are many success stories that come out of here.”

That is why Chris believes supporting New Directions is about more than providing a bed or a meal. It gives people experiencing homelessness, addiction and instability the opportunity to begin rebuilding their lives.