“Everybody here has lifted me up.”

Leo was 15 years old when his brother died in a motorcycle crash. “I spent three days on the couch, just lying there… the grief was so hard on me.”

Just six years later, his father’s death from terminal illness destroyed Leo’s world once again—he started looking for ways to numb the pain. “I was doing hard drugs even before he passed away.”

Addiction trapped him for years until, at 35, he was diagnosed with a mental illness. “I lost the place that I lived, I lost my job. I lost everything and I was out on the streets for that year. I basically was just completely out of touch with reality.”

He wound up living on the street, with no possessions or ID. “I was picked up by mental health services and taken to a psychiatric ward where they tried to stabilize me on meds.” When his stay there ended, they called him a cab to Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities.

“Before I came here I was self-absorbed and lost… they opened my eyes to the community that has healed me.”

At the Mission, Leo received the mental health care he needed for his dual diagnosis of mental illness and addiction. “Everyone in the mental health department was so kind and welcoming. They were wonderful to me.”

For the first time in his life, Leo opened his heart to the Lord, and in our faith-based recovery program, he felt God drawing near. “A voice inside me said, ‘I got you,’ and I know that that was God.”

As he continues healing and creating a firm foundation, Leo is already planning for his future after UGMTC, including returning to school and finding a job to support himself, while staying closely connected to the community he has built here.

Thank you for loving neighbors like Leo “as you’ve loved yourself.” Your kindness has reminded him that he is not alone and that a better life is possible! “Everybody here has lifted me up and guided me toward a positive path. I can’t imagine my life without them.”

Click here to read the full issue of our Summer 2025 Newsletter.