Jerry’s Story

Jerry Secures Housing

Sixty-six year old Jerry used to drive a truck and made a good living at it, but found making ends meet in retirement much more difficult. He and his wife, who was battling serious health concerns, were living in a rented trailer, which was in pretty bad shape, with several broken windows and holes in the floor. That’s when things went from bad to worse. 

Jerry shared, “It all started in March (of 2025), my dog died, then my car burned up, then my wife died… and then I had to have a tumor taken out (of my brain). After the surgery, they sent me home but I wasn’t doing too good. Come to find out, my brain wasn’t sending signals to my adrenal glands… and I got really sick from it.” 

Due to these personal tragedies and health issues, things got so bad for Jerry, he even considered ending his own life. Thankfully, through word-of-mouth, Jerry had heard of TrueNorth and decided to walk into the Oceana County housing office, located at Love INC. in Shelby, to see if he could get help finding a new place to live. He had been trying to navigate the complicated systems and procedures involved but felt he wasn’t getting anywhere.

“I was just spinning my tires in the mud… but finally, we landed on some solid ground,” Jerry stated. Jerry says he simply wouldn’t have been able to do it all on his own, and he would have ended up homeless without the help he received from TrueNorth’s housing and emPower programs. He shared that his overall mental state changed from poor to excellent between August of 2025 and March of 2026. His hopes for himself a year from now are; “Getting back on my feet and trying to enjoy life.”