Imagine Housing Blog

Meet Marcel

Marcel is a resident at Imagine Housing’s Francis Village and is thankful to have a place to call his own. He enjoys spending time with his neighbors, going to community events, and hanging out with his service dog, Duke. Marcel left New York for Washington in 1992 at the age of 29, to establish a relationship with his father. He has had the opportunity to enjoy everything that the state has to offer, including water skiing and horseback riding.

Marcel worked as a commercial driver most of his life, but an addiction eventually caused him to lose his livelihood and end up homeless. He started out couch surfing and wound up living on the streets. He would look for places to hang out during the day and worked hard to not look homeless so that he could be inside. A nearly fatal bicycle accident left him with a head injury and he had to relearn how to do even basic tasks. He is still working on getting better, but, thanks to the program at Congregations for the Homeless, he was able to get back on track. Three years ago he came to Francis Village, and he feels stable for the first time in many years.

Today, Marcel is grateful to have this fresh start and feels blessed to live in an apartment he can afford and to have a place to rest his head every day.

He appreciates the staff who help him and thanks God every day for Francis Village. He hopes to someday drive again and is proud to have retained his commercial license. But for now, he feels good about himself and where he is and he works to inspire others and to teach them to take one day at a time.

Originally published Sept. 28, 2017