Author: Joe Hart

Brin grew up in a small town where the only ways out for young adults were through college or the military. Brin’s father and grandmother both served in the military, so she decided to follow in their footsteps. Six days after graduating high school, she began basic training for the Army.

Life in the Army was tough for an 18-year-old, especially since she had to juggle the responsibility of caring for her 12-year-old brother. Both her father, who was wheelchair-bound, and her brother suffered from neurofibromatosis. Brin took several leaves to care for them while on active duty during the Gulf War.

“It’s been a rough road,” shares Brin, who deals with post-traumatic stress disorder and devotes much of her energy to caring for her partner, a fellow veteran who also shares PTSD and is battling progressive multiple sclerosis. Through challenges, the two of them have worked hard to support each other and improve their lives.

In fact, Brin met her partner at Transformation Village in Asheville while they were both experiencing homelessness. They were placed in the same room, where they quickly became best friends. Brin was overjoyed the day her partner called and asked her out on a date. “I knew in my mind this is who I’m supposed to be with,” she says. Today, they have been married for more than 11 years, and celebrated their anniversary a few days after our interview.

When asked if she had any special plans for their anniversary, Brin shared that their finances are a significant barrier to going out. Still, they make time to show each other they’re special. One example is splitting up in Dollar Tree and building little gift baskets for each other with snacks, postcards, and other small items.

“When she and I met,” says Brin, “neither of us had anything. We met at zero. We built everything that we had before we lost it all.” Brin went on to share that Hurricane Helene had destroyed their home and said water was not the main cause of the destruction. The two of them were trapped in their home for five hours as one tree after another fell on their house, crushing doors, cars, and exits. “We were screaming for help, but no one could hear because of the wind.”

After the storm, Brin and her partner became homeless again. They lived with Brin’s grandmother for a few weeks before FEMA assistance allowed them to stay in a hotel in Greenville, South Carolina. They fought to stay afloat once their vouchers ran dry, but soon the expenses began to pile up. They moved back to Asheville, and Brin took on day-labor jobs while the two of them lived in a tent, sharing sleeping bags.

One day, Brin decided to visit Haywood Street Congregation and stayed for the lunch service. While eating, someone spotted Brin’s Army baseball cap and told her she could contact the local Veterans Affairs (VA) center for housing assistance, a resource she didn’t know had existed. From there, the VA connected Brin with Homeward Bound’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program.

In November 2025, Brin and her partner began touring homes with one of Homeward Bound’s Housing Specialists. Just one month later, our SSVF team helped them secure a home where they could begin rebuilding their lives.

“Everything fell into place,” says Brin. “It moved so fast, it was amazing.”

Today, Brin holds an associate’s degree in cybersecurity and is completing an internship through the Carolina Cyber Center at Montreat College. Brin is working to earn her bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree in cybersecurity. She plans to use her military benefits to support her schooling expenses. Her career plan is to work for agencies that target and remove child sexual abuse material from the internet. She hopes to use her cybersecurity and ethical hacking skills to protect people who are being exploited.

She still faces barriers to employment that make finding stable work difficult despite her credentials. Transportation is still a major issue. Her replacement vehicle is used and has begun experiencing mechanical problems, which the SSVF program is helping address. Nonetheless, Brin is grateful that her new car is in her own name.

“It feels good to sign a lease and own a car. I haven’t owned a car in over 15 years. This is something special for me… We could hardly pay our bills before Homeward Bound.”

While financial stability remains a goal, Brin says she is encouraged by the progress she and her partner have already made. Homeward Bound’s SSVF Healthcare Navigator, Heather, has also helped Brin and her partner access healthcare resources, dental services, and food boxes.

“One thing that I admire about her,” says Heather, “is that no matter how hard a situation was, she faced it head-on and didn’t look back. She’s come very far in the program.”

When asked what she would say to the greater community, Brin expressed:

“We are not all bad people just because we don’t have a house. We didn’t choose to be homeless. It chose us. It’s not the life I want to see for myself. I want to see us in a career, healthy, and one day owning a house. Anybody that’s out there who needs help, Homeward Bound is the place to go.”

An update from Brin four months after our interview:

“I continue to overcome the battles! I am now in the CWT (compensated work therapy program) at the VA hospital, working, and have applied for a full-time job! My hope when I step into full-time is to transition over to an IT position with the VA and maybe even the Department of Defense. Life continues to throw struggles, but I know through my faith and perseverance, we will overcome all of them.” – Brin

Mercy left the Navy uncertain of her next steps. She wasn’t trained to be a plumber, electrician, accountant, or engineer — she was trained to operate, maintain, and repair weapons aboard a Naval vessel. It was a skill set that had few applications in civilian life, and she had given up college for it. She had hoped that the military would provide a better path for her future, but she left feeling that it did not.

This feeling of aimless wandering caused severe depression that worsened over the years. To cope, Mercy turned to using substances. She says her following choices led her to five years in prison. Once released, Mercy knew that something had to change. She needed to make different choices, and she needed better opportunities.

Like others with a history of incarceration, Mercy hit walls when it came to finding a home that would accept her background, and living in a tent wasn’t going to cut it. In need of temporary shelter, Mercy connected with ABCCM’s Transformation Village, which then connected with Homeward Bound’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families Rapid Rehousing program to assist with permanent housing and case management. This was the opportunity she needed.

“I knew with my background, it was not going to look pretty,” shares Mercy, who struggled to find an affordable home in post-Helene Asheville. “I wasn’t going to be able to get a place by myself. Having a program where you have landlords that will work with you and give you that chance to prove yourself —that was life-changing.”

Today, Mercy has lived in her home with her partner for over a year. Mercy is proud of the sense of ownership and accountability she feels because her name is on her lease. She’s also very proud of her work as the Operations Manager at Deep Time, a local coffee shop that works with people who have been impacted by incarceration.

“I’ve been at Deep Time for almost two years,” she says. “And it’s been a journey —a journey in finding yourself and finding the possibilities that you may not have been able to go after before. Some of these resources, like Homeward Bound, have really opened up a lot of opportunities for me.”

Thanks to the stability of home and employment, Mercy has developed other skills aligned with her goal of building a career with Deep Time, including earning her Community Health Worker Certification and enrolling in the Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor program. She hopes to help Deep Time grow and open new locations to offer better opportunities to others.

In her free time, Mercy loves to cook, crochet, and be with her friends, all things she values dearly. Previously, she never had a stable place to keep her belongings. The simple fact that she has a home and a place to store her yarn means the world to her. She believes barriers like the ones she faced shouldn’t exist when all they do is hold people back from success.

“Let go of the stigma that society has drilled in every one of our heads…. Just because you’ve had that background does not mean that this person is a throwaway person. If they’re given the right resources, they will prove to you that they are worth something. And given the right opportunities, they will flourish, they will grow, and you’d be very surprised.”

Brooke and Kelso met on the streets of Asheville. Their paths had crossed once or twice, but it wasn’t until one freezing morning on a bus that they connected. Brooke noticed Kelso sitting alone, wearing only shorts and a T-shirt. From his expression, she could tell something was wrong. She handed him a sweater, an extra she didn’t know why she had that morning, and felt she couldn’t leave his side until she knew he would be okay. Soon after, they began dating and surviving on the streets together.

Brooke

Brooke was born and raised in North Carolina. After her parents’ separation, she moved frequently as her mother remarried. Her father’s addiction and her mother’s focus on her career left Brooke feeling deprived of love and affection. She describes her upbringing as a “typical broken family: divorce and alcoholism.”

As a young adult, Brooke watched her friends marry, have children, and build their own lives. She entered her 20s hoping to do the same. She graduated from college, became a registered nurse, and bought her first apartment at 24. While she valued her independence, the pressure of maintaining her mortgage quickly became overwhelming.

“I was always stressed about money,” Brooke says. “Even as a nurse making $50,000 a year, I was constantly worried about how I was going to make it. I always felt two weeks away from losing everything…Homeownership in America is not what it used to be.”

Brooke took a huge blow to her stability when her fiancé walked out on her. Not long after, her sister was diagnosed with cancer, and her grandmother passed away. Then, after being bitten by a venomous snake, Brooke was prescribed opioids to cope with the pain. The combination of these experiences and unresolved trauma led to Brooke developing an addiction. Under severe stress, she walked away from her mortgage and became homeless.

Kelso

Kelso grew up in a low-income neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. From an early age, he experienced violence, addiction, and poverty. He remembers being shot when he was 12 years old and waking up on a table with a tag on his foot. He also remembers his mother struggling with addiction, and his stepfather telling him that selling drugs was the only way to help his family.

“We moved every six months to a year,” Kelso says. “We were always getting evicted. I had six siblings, and we were all starving. I got tired of seeing my younger brother and sister go hungry, wearing the same clothes.”

At 14, Kelso was arrested for selling drugs and sent to a juvenile detention center. His mother and father told him he couldn’t come home when he was released. Without a place to stay, Kelso train-hopped across the country with other teens with similar backgrounds. He said traveling was liberating and thrilling until he was involved in a severe car accident that resulted in multiple surgeries on his back and knees. The physical and emotional pain caused years of depression.

He eventually made his way to Asheville, where he has lived for the last 10 years. Two years ago, his mother and aunt passed away within months of each other. After learning of his mother’s death over the phone, he felt at his lowest point and took a bus to a mental health clinic. That’s when he met Brooke.

Together

As a couple, Brooke and Kelso slept wherever they could in Asheville. Often, they were moved along by police and fined for trespassing. While homelessness itself is not a crime, local ordinances can make it nearly impossible to find a safe place to sleep outside. Outside of Code Purple season, which offers night shelter during the winter, shelters typically only have space for one person from a couple. Most people aren’t comfortable leaving their partners while they sleep surrounded by strangers.

In the final months before being housed, the couple was permitted to live in a shed behind an office building. For the first time in a while, they had a place to rest. They could lock the door and protect both their belongings and themselves.

After connecting with the AHOPE Day Center, Brooke and Kelso were slated for Permanent Supportive Housing at Compass Point Village. They received a call from Luc Gay, Homeward Bound’s Coordinated Entry Program Manager, telling them they could move in that week. The couple signed their first lease together on Brooke’s birthday.

Seven months later, Brooke and Kelso are settling into their new home. They access medical and behavioral healthcare through Appalachian Mountain Health, our on-site medical partner. Their case manager, Erin, is helping connect Brooke to disability benefits. More than anything, both of them want to work. Brooke is driven to earn her own income so she can pay rent. For now, they are focused on allowing their nervous systems time to reacclimatize.

“They’re both pretty grounded,” says Erin. “Their situation reflects well what happens when you’ve been houseless for a number of years. It can be overwhelming and a little claustrophobic.”

In their personal lives, Brooke says she felt starved for information while living on the streets and now watches YouTube videos to catch up on what she missed. She dreams of starting a food truck for music festivals, inspired by her teenage years as a roadie for the Grateful Dead. What matters most to her now is healing from the trauma she has experienced and the relationship she has built with her case manager.

“This goes very deep for me,” says Brooke. “Erin cried when she got us into the apartment. Nobody has ever shown that kind of emotion to help someone they didn’t even know. Her heart is in it.”

Kelso enjoys skateboarding and playing guitar. Both of his parents have passed away, which has been very hard for him. He encourages everyone to call their parents every day if they have the opportunity. What matters most to him is Brooke’s safety and well-being.

“It’s a relief,” he says. “It’s nice knowing that no matter what, she has housing more than anything.”