Faith's Story

Faith is a 2024 Steinbruck Award Honoree

Ask Faith Strong, a resident of N Street Village’s Step-Up Rapid Rehousing Program, what she’s most proud of, and without any hesitation, she says, “myself.”

“I came a long way,” she says. “I feel like I’m proud of the journey that I had to embark on. It may not have been easy, but I’m proud of it. When I look back, I’m proud of everything, even though some stuff was difficult to get through.”

A native Washingtonian, Faith grew up in Northeast with her four sisters and one brother. Her mother struggled with a substance use disorder that resulted in her grandmother taking charge of Faith and her siblings. Though she learned motherly love from her grandmother, Faith battled with feelings of abandonment and had a strained relationship with her mother.

During Faith’s final year of high school, her grandmother died, leaving her and her baby sister without a home.

“It was like I was jumping from house to house and then we were on the street for a little bit and then we had no other choice but to go to my mother’s house, even though she was doing drugs.”

Faith struggled to find meaning in her life and didn’t want to live anymore. With therapy, she began to deal with her depression. Eventually, she entered a young adult transitional program that helped her with employment and life skills. She worked two to three jobs so she could make enough money to be eligible for the rapid rehousing program.

Faith credits her N Street Village caseworker, Pamela Wells, for helping her to cope with past trauma and difficult situations she’s experienced.

“Ms. Wells has always been caring. She understands me, and it’s not just like, ‘I’m a caseworker, I get paid to do this.’ She genuinely cares.”

Her biggest challenge was learning to forgive her mother.

“I had to forgive her and not always take the anger out on her for the things that she probably didn’t know,” she says. “At the time I needed her to be a mother, but as you go through your healing journey, you learn that sometimes she couldn’t be the mother you wanted her to be.”

Fortunately, Faith now has a better relationship with her mother, who is working through her recovery.

“I’m most passionate about encouraging other people to know they can make it through too,” says Faith. “I love people. I’ve learned it and understand life. Sometimes you just got to pour into people because they don’t have nobody.”

Her dream is to open a shelter and transitional program. “People have abandonment issues, neglect issues and all these different problems, but instead of reacting in a non-healthy way, it’ll be better to deal with it. And I want to deal with the homeless population because I’ve been there.”