Rising from Despair to Stability & Hope

Sitting in front of two open laptops in a comfortable apartment in Des Moines, Frank looks like a typical work-from-home IT guy in his purple T-shirt and jeans. His face clouds as he remembers a Facebook post he wrote just two years ago.

“That post talked about how desperate and depressed I was. When I read it now, I think, ‘Wow, I was done. I wouldn’t have made it much longer.’ I’ve come a long way in two years. I really have.”

When Frank first came to Joppa, he recalls, “I didn’t know what to do or where to go.” He was homeless, new in town and had stayed as long as allowed at the metro homeless shelters.

Friends told him about Joppa Outreach where he was given the basics for setting up a camp: a tent, food, candles and a heater. “If it wasn’t for Joppa that winter, I probably would have frozen or starved to death,” he says, shaking his head at the memory: “I had nothing.”

“My mental issues (brought on by childhood trauma) went untreated until I was in my thirties,” Frank says. He tried treatment, which propelled him on a cycle of taking his meds, feeling better, stopping the meds and crashing. He repeated that cycle again and again, ending up homeless each time.

As Joppa got to know Frank, he agreed he needed and wanted more than what life in a homeless camp was offering him. To start this transition, Joppa helped get him an appointment with Broadlawns Hospital where his chronic depression was treated with medication and therapy.

But this time was different. With renewed hope and determination, and the support of his Joppa friends, Frank fought hard and found his balance.

Doctors at Broadlawns told Frank that his mental health diagnosis qualified him for disability payments. “Now how was I going to do that?” I remember thinking, he says. “Being homeless, how do I afford a lawyer?” But Joppa provided a lawyer and with a steady income from the disability check, Frank qualified for low-income housing.

During the next year, Frank built his hobby of buying, restoring and reselling laptop computers into a viable business. He found a girlfriend – his best friend, and he’s working toward his “white-picket-fence” dream: owning a store of his own, living in a house with a family and being happy.

He credits Joppa with pulling him out of the pit of depression and despair that had nearly engulfed him. “You can depend on Joppa to help in hard times. In hard times, that’s a wonderful thing! You can’t fight your way out of homelessness by yourself,” he insists. “Without resources and people, you can’t get out. You just give up because it’s too hard. But Joppa is a blessing, placing hope in your life.”

Leaning forward in his office chair, urgent to make his point, Frank tells the Joppa volunteers, “Nothing I could do would repay you. I’m so grateful to you guys. Really, I am.”

Frank says: “I encourage people to help with Joppa because Joppa is a way of giving hope to people.”