For most of Anthony R.’s life, he swung on the end of a pendulum, back and forth between homelessness and substance abuse on one side, and getting an education and going straight on the other. After 30 years of riding that pendulum, a rehab program in 2007 and a year spent in Veterans Inc. housing finally halted the back and forth, leaving Anthony in a good place.

He joined the U.S. Army at age 22 to get off the New York City streets. “The military was my way out,” he says. Four years later, he was back in civilian life. For a few years, he worked various jobs including driving a cab while considering taking classes. Then, he started doing drugs and “the bottom started dropping”. The next 30 years were a blur of drugs, alcohol, homelessness, and rehabilitation. He took six-month programs, he went into rehab for two years, he tried every program there was, once relapsing the day he completed the program. “My life has always been centered around the two sides, wanting to build a life on one hand and tearing down what little I’d built with drugs on the other,” he explains.

Being a New York City junkie was a dangerous proposition. The City shelters were not safe places — people were dying in them, getting robbed and beaten up. “There were mad drugs in the veterans’ shelters there, and people being put in garbage bags every day,” Anthony remembers.

Ten or so years in upstate New York provided a change of scenery but the pendulum still swung, between good and bad times, school and drugs, shelter and the streets. But one day in January 2007, a program worked. “Cocaine had taken over my life – all my money went to coke. I even ruined my nose and can’t smell to this day — so I had to do something,” Anthony says. “I haven’t had a drink or a drug since then, and I don’t desire to have one. It may only be two years and three months, but that’s two long, good years and three long, strong months that I’ve had without a drink or drug, and every day it just gets better.”

Looking back at the pendulum, Anthony notes, “Drug addiction and a 9-to-5 job is the hardest combination, and the drugs always won. Being caught in the grips, being a slave to a substance – I don’t miss it. Finally, I don’t miss it.”

His substance abuse kicked, Anthony was still homeless. In search of a place to live, he landed in transitional housing in Massachusetts. Unable to pay the minimal rent, he was sent to Veterans Inc.’s emergency shelter in Worcester. “I was bitter coming back to a shelter. I hated every minute of it the first few weeks, but then I realized I’d been in far worse places.”

The sense of structure and security in Veterans Inc. housing reminded Anthony of the military, making the transition easier for him. “It’s hard for someone who’s never been homeless to understand the importance of a safe place to live. You can shut your eyes to other bad things in life, but not that. Veterans Inc. gave me a roof over my head in a safe environment, kept me fed and gave me life skills, and all of those things eventually gave me a sense of security and self-worth.”

“This place helped me build a foundation as opposed to having to deal with homelessness and a sense of abandonment on my own. I was given a sense that I mattered. On a daily basis, I got to feel as if I mattered.”

In 2009, Anthony moved into an apartment. In 2010, he started working at Veterans Inc.’s Grove Street shelter as a Resident Advisor, “the eyes and ears of the facility,” as he calls it. “I’m just blessed to be associated with this organization, and to have come here. I think that God knew where I needed to be and made sure that it happened.”