An alcoholic for many years, Alfredo had burned every bridge with his family and friends, losing his wife, house and job. Finding himself on the streets in Simi Valley, he started to come to the Samaritan Center. I remember I had about ten friends but they’re all gone now. They died from drinking. For weeks and months we would drink.

I lived in the cemetery for over a year – that was my house, next to the cemetery. And the lady who ran (the Center), she would come out and look for us.”

Eventually, sickness forced him into rehab. After rehab, the Center helped him find a job and a place to live. The Center was a big help to me. There are so many things they’ve done for me besides food and clothes…they helped me take care of old tickets I had. They took me all the way to Oxnard. Not even my brother would do that. Not even my friends. I did them wrong so many times, not showing up, missing appointments, but the Center still helped me out with money to start my school.

Today, Alfredo has been sober for ten years. He is working and living with a family, making new steps forward every day.

Homeless due to economic circumstances, when Sally arrived at the Center, she had been living in her car for about a year. The Center helped her find a job as a live-in caretaker. “One night I was sleeping in my car. The next night I was sleeping in a room with a bed,” she explained.

“The Center provides a sense of family, community and base structure that, I believe, is needed for the people who come here. It gives them a reason to get up, to go to the Center, take their showers, eat their food and they can continue into the day through their own choices.

Through my travels, I was often told that it was a sense of community that I needed. When I came here it was an odd sense of community but it was exactly what I needed.” Sally regularly volunteered  at the Center, sorting the clothes donated for clients, wanting to give back to the place that helped her.