COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus couple, homeless for years, has finally landed stable housing.
When they asked for help, the Mount Carmel Social Care team answered their call.
Even with their help, they faced layers of hurdles on their journey from a tent to sturdy walls.
Bonnie Slussar and JJ Mossburg paid rent this month for the first time.
“It actually felt pretty good to go down to the office and they say 'can I help you?' -- 'I'm here to pay rent'. You know it actually felt good to say that,” said Slussar.
Until now, they were living in a tent. JJ's drug use landed him in and out of jail and the hospital.
Since he was 9-years-old, he’s lived in and out of foster care and group homes and has no family. Bonnie who is sober, has been with him for the last five years.
“I was afraid I was going to lose him,” said Slussar.
When JJ also thought he would die, he asked for help.
“You gotta want the help to get it,” said Mossburg.
“I received a call one day saying 'hey JJ's looking for some help,’” said Karen Otto, from Mount Carmel Social Care.
Otto answered that call.
“There's that one-minute window where somebody says 'help',” she said. “And that’s when we jump in to help.”
Otto is also a Peer Recovery Supporter.
“There's a huge stigma with substance use disorders. I know it, I lived it, I'm in recovery myself,” she said.
It’s a question Otto once asked herself: who are cares for the people who have no one to care for them?
She found the answer to her own question, in herself. She’s now the one to care for JJ.
Helping JJ on his journey to sobriety and stable housing, Otto knew there were key steps they had to take. There were key things they would need.
“An original birth certificate, state ID or driver's license, and a social security card,” Otto explained. “During COVID – all of those places [were] closed.”
And there would be more setbacks, even when they secured a housing voucher.
“No landlords will rent. Or you'll find landlords that say they'll accept vouchers but they need 24-month rental history, they want a ten-year clean criminal history and the folks that we work with don't' have that,” Otto said.
It took months of working with partner agencies to secure a lease.
“This is pretty unique,” said Roxann Payne, a manager of Mount Carmel Social Care. “This is the first time that we've had this- an opportunity to specifically be able to work with a patient towards actually getting into a unit.”
Perseverance unlocking opportunity, unlocking a future.
“This just means everything to us to be inside,” said Bonnie. “It takes some getting used to again. But we're getting there.”
“To me it’s luxury,” said JJ, “because I’ve had no better.”