Angel was homeless in her home state of Tennessee for a few years. She drank too much and did drugs, and lost her HUD housing where she’d lived with her four kids for 9 ½ years. She ended up living in her car and got fired from her job. When I asked her what brought her out to Colorado, she said with a wide grin, “a cute guy and a bottle of vodka.” One of the most striking things about Angel is her forthrightness. In the same breath that she can laugh about that now, she is all seriousness when she says, “I wasn’t being responsible. I started drinking when I was 9, and did my first rehab when I was 12. I’ve battled with alcohol my whole life.” When she first came to Boulder, she got involved with the 12 Tribes and stayed with them for a month. After she left there, she was on the streets from 2018 to September 2020, when she finally got housing. In 2019, she got C-Diff and ended up in the hospital, where, for the first time in years, she was able to rest and sleep in a bed. It made her remember what it was like to be housed, and what she’d been missing, like hot showers. She said that short time off the street was the impetus for her sobriety and getting housed.

Angel met Jennifer Livovich, Founder of Feet Forward, at the Severe Weather Shelter. Jennifer used to come there and collect people’s dirty socks and wash them, and then bring them back to the shelter. This early program was called “Save a Toe.” Angel started volunteering with Jennifer once she was housed, and is now in charge of cooking for Feet Forward’s weekly Tuesday program that serves over 100 people, along with collecting food and clothing. She is a part-time employee. Angel’s housing is through Boulder Housing Partners, and she gets Food Stamps and additional food delivered once a week from a local church (canned goods, milk, and meat items). EFAA has also helped her, and provides a book of bus passes for the year.

While Angel said that “most of the people out here don’t have a choice,” she also acknowledged that there are some people who just want to live outside, and she believes that people should have the right to make that decision for themselves. According to Angel, Feet Forward offers almost every service the unhoused community needs, and significantly, because of Jennifer’s connections, it is a safe place for them to be.

Angel hasn’t used hard drugs for 10 years, and spent 6 years in AA, with some ups and downs, before getting sober in 2019. She expressed gratitude for programs like The Phoenix. In addition to working with Feet Forward, she also helps people who get housed get set up in their new homes. She is a Certified Recovery Coach and is working to get certified as a Peer Support Person. Her friend Lori recently drove Angel to Tennessee where she was able to reunite with her children (now aged 16, 18, 30, and 21). I asked Angel what it was that finally changed for her after 14 stints in rehab, and she grinned that big grin of hers and said, “I mentally was ready. I didn’t want to be that me anymore.”