The Charlie Center

Yesterday would have been Charlie's 77th birthday. And his hope was to move out off the streets and into a home at Community First! Village. Sadly, Charlie never got to realize that dream. But we honored Charlie's dream by moving Henri into a home last week.

Henri is a hardworking immigrant from Belgium who became a naturalized citizen. He is intelligent, well-spoken, and funny. He is a musician and loves the Beatles. Due to an accident, he lost part of his leg and his savings and was forced to begin living in his car. Initially ashamed of his downward trajectory, he later decided to come to The Charlie Center for help.

The only sad things about this move-in is that we will miss seeing Henri at Charlie--he is the favorite of many! What an honor it was to serve such a strong, resilient man! 💜

I met Travis this week. He had a place to live, then his mom died last Thanksgiving. Then he didn't have a place to live. Homelessness can happen just that fast. He also lost his 5-year old son to pneumonia. While we talked, I noticed the colorful tabs on his cap. "Those are zip ties," he said. "This is my lucky cap. My son put those there. I'll never take them off." He has experienced so much pain...but is still trying to move forward.

Thank you to our incredible community for participating in Amplify Austin and helping us reach our $5000 goal! We are excited to get our shower trailer repaired and can't wait for more "clean starts" to take place at The Charlie Center!

This is what joy looks like... We worked for MONTHS to get Isaac's birth certificate. He was adopted with multiple name changes, and all of those changes were not registered with the county. But Isaac needed an ID to get a job. FINALLY our hard work paid off (after ordering 5, 6, 7? birth certificates). "I've never held my birth certificate before," Isaac said, in wonder. We didn't give up, and neither did he. Soon Isaac will have a Texas ID in hand!