Steven was hungry and cold…

At just 13 years old, Steven ran away from home to live on his own in Los Angeles. But the streets of Hollywood are no place for a kid.

Desperate for money, Steven got caught up in the sex industry. Drugs and alcohol consumed him. “I slept on the beach or under the boardwalk for about a year and a half,” he recalls.

Many years later, Steven ended up back in Portland where he grew up. “I was hungry, cold — extremely cold,” he says. He lined up on the sidewalk outside Portland Rescue Mission one night, waiting to get a hot meal. But he found something more.

The meal meant so much to Steven and filled him with gratitude. He joined the New Life Recovery program and is on his way to a stable, healed life.