Deshaun’s Success Story

A Place That Helped Me Get Back Home

Editor’s Note: Most editions of the Rescuer feature testimonies of our New Life Program members and their transformed lives. These stories detail how God works through the Rescue Mission to transform people suffering through addiction and pain into restored individuals, sober, and able to leave life on the streets.

This month, we wanted to feature a story from another part of our ministry that we don’t talk about as much. Our Transitions Program helps men and women who don’t have drug problems but have economic problems. These are the poor amongst us. People who may have lost their jobs or homes and don’t have a safety net of savings or family to fall back on. These people don’t need a year-long recovery program, but some temporary help to obtain employment and housing.

This month we share the story of Deshaun Mitchell, one recent success from our Transitions Program.

I grew up in New Jersey and despite being raised in a “Christian” home, there was a lot of turmoil in my house. I was the first member of my family to graduate college and after I graduated, I didn’t go back.

I felt that by graduating college I had made it out of the neighborhood turmoil I had been born into. I graduated with a communications degree and started working as a copywriter in New York, usually writing or editing copy for advertising and marketing firms.

In March 2020, when COVID hit, it was a struggle for my company to keep me on. There was so much uncertainty and in the summer of 2020, my company made the decision to let me go. At the time, my girlfriend, who is a talented, young pastry chef, was in Paris on a work-learn program. Because of the travel restrictions between France and New York at the time, she was not able to return to the U.S.

Alone and jobless, I made the decision to travel to Salt Lake with a friend, where we had heard the job market was better and the cost-of-living more affordable. We arrived in Salt Lake and I found a quick job working for a company that had a contract to clean city parks and buildings. My friend and I got an apartment but soon my friend had a family emergency come up and had to leave for Florida. I was here in Utah alone and my single salary could not pay the rent.

I had a few weeks left on the existing lease. With my girlfriend still in Paris and not really having a good relationship with my family, I tried to find some temporary housing here in Utah. I searched the internet for housing resources and called several options.

Of all the places I called, the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake was the only one that answered the phone. I told them my situation and they told me I could come to the downtown Salt Lake shelter and they would help me. When my lease ran out in the first week of September I walked to the Rescue Mission. It was the first time I had ever been to a homeless shelter.

In all honestly, the Mission was much more comfortable than I thought it would be. It was safe and all the men on the New Life Program were nice. There was a great comradery amongst the other men who live at the Mission. I didn’t expect everyone to be so friendly, but it was like a little brotherhood existed that I wasn’t expecting.

As a member of the Mission’s Transitions Program, I didn’t follow all the same protocols and rules that members of the New Life Program did. Still, I understood that we were all in the same boat, just trying to work to get back on our feet.

For me, I was able to keep my job cleaning city buildings and facilities. Being able to stay at the Mission for several weeks allowed me to save my paychecks up, instead of paying rent. The goal of the Transitions Program is to quickly save $2,000 or more so you can have enough money to pay first and last month’s rent and a deposit on an apartment. They are seeking a quick transition back into housing, so you don’t get stuck in the mire of long-term homelessness.

Since those of us on the Transitions Program don’t have the drug and alcohol addictions that many of our homeless friends have, it really is just a matter of being able to work and save some money and get back into affordable housing.

In my case, the Transition’s Program has meant so much more than just housing. As I have stayed here, I have gone to the nightly chapel services and other Bible studies. It has only been since I came to the Rescue Mission that I have begun praying nightly to God. I feel like in the past I had a distant relationship from God, but now I have a close relationship with Him.

This relationship with God has changed my life and God has blessed me since I started drawing close to Him. For starters, my girlfriend was able to make it back from Paris and now has a job as a pastry chef in Manhattan. We have decided to get married (the date is November 23) and have secured an apartment in The Bronx.

With the money I have saved on the transitions program, I have money to help us get into the apartment. Additionally, God has blessed me with an editing job, working for a company that helps authors finish their books. There are a lot of people out there writing books but need some writing or creative help to get the book finished and published. So, authors can hire the company I work for to come alongside them and help them finish their creative works.

With my new job and my bride’s pastry chef position, we hope to build a life together in The Bronx. I will be traveling back to New York in early November to start this new life with my soon-to-be wife.

I don’t know how my story could have turn out this way without the help of the Rescue Mission. For me, it was a Godsend. I know we shouldn’t expect two months of safe shelter, free utilities, clothes, and food, but in my case, I needed it. I fought hard to graduate college and get away from the difficulties of my childhood, but the COVID-related economic downtown took a toll on me. I don’t think I would have been able to keep my job here in Salt Lake without a place to live and all the help the Rescue Mission gave me. I am so thankful God led me to Salt Lake and the Rescue Mission. I don’t know where I would be without this journey over the last few months. The newfound relationship I have with God has been especially invaluable.

I am excited to return home to New York and start a new life with my bride-to-be. Thank you so much for supporting the Mission and providing a place where people like me can find the help they need to get back on their feet.