When Tammy walked through the doors of the Life Building Center just three months ago, she had already been through years of struggle. “I’m a recovering addict, and living at the Life Building Center,” she said. “I have congestive heart failure. And so that’s why I was homeless.”

Before coming to the center, Tammy had been on her own for nearly two years. “I lost my home because my heart started to get really bad, and I couldn’t work. Social Security takes forever. So, I became homeless,” she explained. “I was sleeping on park benches. I was sleeping at the river. And I was dying.”

Her health quickly declined. With her heart working at only 5 percent, she was too weak to even leave her camp. “If people left camp and left me there, I was stranded. So I would be stranded down there for days with no water, no nothing. You know, it was horrible. I think probably another week down there, I would have been dead.”

That’s when a group of street nurses and a local police officer intervened. They got her to the hospital, and then, with the help of outreach workers, into the Life Building Center. Tammy was enrolled in our Short-Term Post-Hospitalization (STPH) and Recuperative Care program, which provides safe shelter, meals, and supportive services for medically fragile individuals who need a place to heal after a hospital stay. “The cop came down, picked me up in his car. He said don’t worry about your stuff, just leave it. Took me to an ambulance and got me to the hospital. The next day they were going to release me, but the girls got me into the Life Center, and it’s been a blessing. Yeah, it saved my life.”

At first, Tammy was afraid of entering a shelter. “When I thought I was going to a shelter, I was horrified. I was thinking, I cannot go live in those,” she admitted. “Right now, that shelter is my home. It’s my home right now. And at the end of the day, when it closes to the public, that is our place. That’s our special place. Our safe place.”

Through the STPH and Recuperative Care program, Tammy has had the stability of a roof, a bed, daily meals, and compassionate case management—all of which gave her the chance to regain strength and focus on recovery. “I can tell you this much, I feel 100 times better than I have in the last two years. Just in the last three months,” she said.

She also credits the support she’s received from Habitat staff. “For the girls over here at Habitat, they just came and rallied around me. Anything I needed, it was there for me. I couldn’t ask for a better set of women to help me up.”

Habitat staff members made a lasting impression. “Karen really reached out to me, and she didn’t even know me. And it felt really good.”

Today, Tammy is not only healthier, she’s looking toward the future with hope. Her doctors, who once believed she needed a heart transplant, now say her heart is improving. “From going from six months maybe to no limitations is amazing,” she said.

She is ready to take her next steps. “I’m ready to go forward and get myself out of there. I’m looking for a job,” she said. “I want to get a home for my girls. Now, mind you, they were adopted out nine years ago, but they’re ready to have their mom in their life, and I’m ready to be able to be their mom.”

Tammy has already started reconnecting with her youngest daughters. “I have my youngest one who just turned 14, and I haven’t seen her in nine years. We talk now every night. We text back and forth.” Her 16-year-old is also planning to come home. “She’s looking forward because I got to see her. She ran away and came to me, and so she knows mom loves her. And I’m looking forward to her getting out and coming home.”

Her older children are also beginning to rebuild trust. “My other kids really don’t want nothing to do with me, because they want to see that mom’s doing good. But they’re starting to come around more now that they know I’m doing okay.”

When asked to describe her future in one word, Tammy answered without hesitation: “Stability.”

Tammy calls the people who make programs like this possible her “angels.” And she has a message for anyone who may be going through what she went through: “There is hope. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. If we just put one foot in front of the other and do what we need to do, then we’re going to get there. Because all these people are here to help us. And we just have to do some baby steps and work with them, and we can achieve what we want.”

She is also rediscovering joy in the things that make her unique. “I love to make cakes,” she said, recalling how she once baked wedding cakes with her grandmother. “And I love to make jewelry like headdresses and necklaces. I’m just getting to know myself again.”

Tammy’s story is proof that when people are given the chance to heal, lives can change.

The STPH and Recuperative Care program is what gave Tammy that chance. By providing safe housing and wrap-around support while she recovered, she could rebuild her health, stability, and future.

You can help build more stories like Tammy’s.

Your support makes stories like hers possible. Every gift helps provide safe housing, stability, and second chances for individuals in our community who need it most. Learn more about our programs at yubasutterhabitat.org, and donate to help more neighbors find hope and stability.