A Base to Recover: Robert's Story
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Robert at Lydia House, a CommonBond community for formerly homeless people living with disabilities. |
The lowest point, Robert remembers, was Christmas. “All the homeless shelters were full, so we spent that first Christmas in a shed,” he recalls. “Just my wife and I, smoking crack to the light of a St. Jude candle, the patron saint of lost causes.”
Robert has been clean for over three years. To look at him today, it’s hard to even imagine this well-groomed man in a shack in Minneapolis. But before moving to Lydia Apartments, a CommonBond affordable housing community for formerly homeless people living with disabilities, it didn’t look like he would ever be able to get off the streets. “A huge part of my recovery was getting in here,” Robert says of his home. “It would’ve been nearly impossible without a base like Lydia.”
A seemingly stable life
Robert never thought he would need to use Lydia. Ten years ago he was happily married, owned his own real estate business (“with a net worth in the seven figures,” Robert says with a bit of pride), and had just bought a beautiful home in Minnetonka. While he had struggled with addiction in high school, he had been sober for many years. Life seemed good.
Tragedy leads to a relapse
But when overseeing one of his properties one day, Robert stepped on a rusted nail. The puncture scraped his bone and it became infected. Robert became severely ill and was unable to work for nearly a year. Then, the morphine prescribed for his illness triggered a relapse of his old addiction. On top of that, Robert and his wife were victims of a foreclosure fleecing. Before he knew it, he and his wife were out on the street.
“It was surreal,” Robert says of the moment he realized he had lost his house. “All of a sudden, we were penniless and homeless on the streets of Bloomington. We literally had to walk to Minneapolis.” He and his wife (who had her own struggle with drugs) spent the next two years deep in addiction.
Attempting to get clean on his own
In moments of clarity, Robert tried to get clean and off the streets. He went to shelters. He used services designed to help addicts. He even enrolled in a clinic for six months and was discharged to the street. But without a space of his own, he inevitably slid back to old habits. He remembers strangers coming over to his cot at shelters and demanding that he take drugs, just to prove he was one of them.
The turning point: a safe home
So he applied at Lydia house. Like many affordable housing properties, the waiting list was long. He waited. But every day he came to talk with Lydia’s staff, and one day a space opened up. That day he moved in, he remembers, “There were tears in my eyes.”
Since then, Robert has slowly put his life back together. Like all Lydia residents, he signed a contract to remain sober. With the help of Lydia’s support services, he has been able to keep his word. He has separated from his wife, who chose not to receive help. He has become involved in the community, working with local churches to organize supplies for others who are still homeless. He is creating a business plan to get back on his feet financially and looks forward to owning his own house again. And for the first time in years, he has gotten back in touch with his parents and siblings.
“[Addiction] was a terrible thing to overcome,” Robert says. “I am so thankful to be able to live in a place of recovery and positive change.”
Lydia Apartments are part of a partnership with Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation.
Read the next Resident Voice: A Success by any Definition: Patti's Story
Learn more about Lydia, the affordable housing community that Robert called home.
