Change Starts with the Dignity of a Home

Shawn grew up in the foster care system. He never met his mother. His father is serving a life sentence. He had his first drink at age 14 and has battled alcohol and chronic homelessness ever since. “I was in so much pain I just kept drinking myself stupid and not even having a clue as to how to fix things.”

Shawn bounced in and out of shelters, stayed at the library, lived in tents. One winter his feet were badly frostbitten and he couldn’t walk. “The best way to get warm was to get arrested.”

After being arrested dozens of times, the court ordered Shawn to see a therapist and access treatment for his substance misuse. He accessed care at Harbor Care Health and Wellness Center, including medication assisted treatment (MAT) for his alcoholism. This was pivotal in Shawn’s recovery. “It changed my life.” 

Shawn learned he was bipolar and that alcoholism and bipolar disorder often go together.

“My therapist started planting little seeds of hope in me. I started going to AA meetings. Something was beginning to change for the better in me.”  Then the pandemic hit and everything shut down.

“This left me and others without shelter. Nashua was a ghost town. You couldn’t even go into McDonald's to use the restroom. The library closed, and there was nowhere to keep warm.”

Shawn was sober, but still homeless. His arrest record, mainly for disorderly conduct when intoxicated, was acting as a major barrier. Then, Harbor Care opened a new 9-unit apartment complex in Nashua, and Shawn moved in.

A key part of Shawn’s recovery and stability is Zoe, his emotional support dog. “I have no family. So, all I really have is her. She’s the center of my life.”

Shawn is more than a year sober, and grateful to have stability in his life. “the way bipolar disorder and alcohol partner to destroy a life, MAT and stable housing partner to save it. Without those two things I would be doing a lengthy jail sentence or be dead. I am so very grateful.”

In 2021, Harbor Care’s frontline housing teams helped 76 individuals and families who were chronically homeless move into permanent housing in greater Nashua.