There is something instantly likeable about Joe. When he tells you that other people could always see potential and something good in him, you can understand that. The problem has always been, he says, that – until now—he could never see the potential in himself, not until he started putting his life back together at the Hope for Veterans Transitional Housing Program.

The other problem was a life of disadvantage and hard knocks. The oldest of six siblings, Joe lost his father at age 12 when he was murdered in the Newark riots of the sixties. “I had to become an adult because my mother was relying on me as the oldest but you’re not really an adult capable of taking on that responsibility at that age.” Add to that the prevalence of drugs in the inner-cities and growing up in the era of the drug culture. “Drugs were more accepted in the sixties and after I quit school and joined the Air Force, I found drugs to be even more plentiful in the service,” he recalls. “Over time, the drugs get more progressive.”

Joe left the Air Force after four years of service during the Vietnam Era and appeared to be getting on with his life. He worked for Fortune 500 companies, married and started a family but the drug use eventually cost him everything. “For me, drugs were a way to try to fix a hurt I had inside me . . . There’s a lot of ways to reach skid row. For me, in my fifties, it was my mother dying after a long illness. Here I was alone in the world, living in a rented room in a basement. I asked God for help and it came to me being a veteran.”

After a four month stay in a Veterans Affairs recovery program, Joe learned about Community Hope’s Hope for Veterans Program – a two-year transitional housing program that serves homeless and recovering veterans. That was fifteen months ago. “The counselors here, they give you a foundation to stand on and then the tools to step up to the plate,” he says. For Joe, that has meant nearly two years of being clean of drugs, staying employed, re-establishing broken ties with his family and children, and most importantly, he says, building the self-esteem he always lacked. “I feel like somebody now and I can do what it is I set my mind to. “ Joe looks forward to helping other veterans by sharing his experience.