“I got focused. He became my priority, and doing better for us became my priority.” That’s how Michelle Smiley describes her conviction to build a better life for herself and her son after years of homelessness and addiction. She was living on the street while pregnant, but after Brice’son was born she knew she had […]
For nearly two decades, Annick has known about Our House. Sometimes she’d stay for two weeks or two days, just to find herself coming back the next year. “I was here for the wrong reasons,” Annick says. “I wasn’t ready.” Annick’s adult life has been rocked by instability. After dropping out of college, losing both
“I wanted to get my family back together.” That was Tammie Jackett’s focus when she moved to Arkansas to support her son Jonathan, who had taken full custody of his son Colson and who also was struggling to rebuild his life after addiction and incarceration. They were also united by grief, as Tammie’s daughter had
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First married at age 17 and in a string of unstable and abusive relationships for more than 20 years, in 2025 Mandy McPherson decided that she was going to, in her words, “Stop looking for Mr. Right, and start being Ms. Right.” But her life as a single mother in Hot Springs, Arkansas, was difficult
In late 2023, Robert Stevenson needed help providing a home and stability for his daughter Cali, so he Googled places to get help, and he found Our House. Fortunately, he was able to get a room in our Family House, where he was able to access a full range of services to help build a
Life got hard for Darcey when she was seven months pregnant with her son, Gabe. She needed a place to stay, and while her sister helped look for options, it wasn’t manageable to live together, and there was no other family to turn to. That search brought Darcey from Hot Springs to Our House—a move
In 2024, Charisma Lindsey discovered that a significant black mold infestation in her apartment was causing her three children, including a newborn baby, to have repeated respiratory infections. “The breathing, the wheezing, it was just unbearable,” she recalls. She attempted to advocate for her family with her landlord, but her landlord instead evicted her. Having
Todd lost his housing in 2024 and needed help from Our House to get back on his feet. “I was renting a house, and one of the co-owners passed away, and I was forced to move. I moved in with a former coworker for awhile, but it wasn’t a good fit, and I had to
Health care challenges are a very common factor that can drive a person to homelessness, and Brianna Searcy, who reached out to Our House in early 2023, clearly describes how this happened with her. “I have always worked, but when I got sick, it made it hard to do my job. I had so many
Taylor was living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 2022, when he broke his arm, which caused him to miss several months of work. “By the spring of 2023, all my savings were drained, and I got evicted. I was in and out of tents or the one shelter in town, which is built to help 30