As Seattle's first social realtor, every sale with Chapman Homes helps a person in need at no additional cost to you. See how it works HERE
Thankful for my clients Zach and Sandy! Their purchase generated a donation to one of Chapman Homes non-profit partners, WELD, who gives those coming out of homelessness and incarceration a second chance at life. Gabe (see story below) has experienced much and yet he is now beginning to thrive, and you are now a part of that story!
Our mission here at Weld Seattle is to offer a path out for those who have been long involved with the justice system. We offer vital support through community, resources, and access to housing and employment—giving people a leg up and stepping stone to a new life, free from the cycle of release and re-arrest, or brief recovery and relapse. Gabe’s story is a powerful example of how support, housing, and friendship can make the difference between life and death, prison and freedom, and addiction and recovery. Read on for more, as Gabe tells it:
“I’m going to start all the way back, cause it is pretty important.
Weld has really saved my life. I’ve just got so much gratitude for this program and the people that are working in it. I would say that I’m a product of the system, all the way. I was in foster care from really early age, from eight years old. Bounced around. And of course, doing that – by the time I was old enough to juvenile hall, I went there. And you know, going to places like that really early on just sets you up for more.
Throughout those teen years is when all my family passed away. My little sister, my mom, and then my uncle. By the time I was 19, they were gone. Of course, that gave me every excuse in the book to try to fill the hole inside of me with every drug I could find. I guess it seemed like it was real fun earlier on, because I was trying to escape. I always found myself being the guy who wanted to keep partying, when everyone else was ready to go home. Well, there was no home for me to go to. The hard drugs started right around 19, right after my mom died. When I was introduced to meth, it became a different story. It became everything.
I had already gone to jail a few times and became really resentful of the system. So I made it a mission to beat the system. I began to get heavily involved with manufacturing counterfeit money. That led me to a whole new level of bad stuff. Real bad stuff, real bad people. Got myself in over my head with different kinds of criminals. I was kind of like the nerd criminal, the white-collar criminal – thought I was real smart. But I got a lot of hard lessons out there, really hard lessons. And I kind of accepted that I was eventually going to go to prison. Which I did – I did my first state prison sentence when I was 23, for possession of fictitious bills.
In California, where I am from, prison is a right of passage – everybody goes to prison. So I kind of wore it like a badge of honor, that I made it through it, and early on accepted that eventually I was going make it to the feds [federal prison]. Having that in the back of my head, I pretty much just led myself there. I know it sounds weird, but I wanted to go. I ran as hard as I could and did as much as I could to and tried to prove I could find someone out there who cared enough about me to make it stop, but I never found it.
Eventually, I went to federal prison. The secret service and the FBI handled my case. I was looking at some really serious time—like, 20 years. I ended up getting five. I had a lot of time to reflect on why I did what I did. So of course, when I got out, I still hadn’t really found an answer for that, so I played the part for probation, and went back out.
Overall this time, being in the system, and being against it, I became a real liar about my addiction. GettingThey are really trying to help save lives here. use, I was going to moderate. And I finally realized how much of a liar I was. And I was still alone. Eventually, I got ahold of a bad batch [of drugs], and it gave me a stroke at 33 years old. A week out of the ICU, I was using again. I knew something needed to change.
Before I’d gone to prison, I had gotten a girl pregnant. She had left and come up to Seattle. And at that point, I thought the only thing I really needed to do was give myself a goal, so I decided to check myself into rehab up here at the Salvation Army, and try to be a dad. That didn’t pan out, because I had done a lot of damage, but I did complete the program, at the Salvation Army.
Then I went back out again. It was real insanity. And somehow through the grapevine, I got Ron’s number [Weld house manager].
And I’ll tell you what, man. It was the first time that somebody—not just Ron, but everybody at Weld—proved that they were going to see me through. No matter what it was, they were going to work with me; they were going to help me find myself. Which is what’s been happening! Since I’ve been here…I don’t even know how to explain it. I’ve been learning more about myself and who I am, more than I ever have, because I’ve got people around me who aren’t just quick to throw you away.
In a lot of situations in life, people are quick to throw you away, if you relapse, if you mess up, you’re kicked out. But here, they want to work with you, they want to help you. This is the most difficult thing a person can do. So, out of everything I’ve been through, it’s landed me here, and for the first time in my life, I can finally see myself and where I’m at. And really, I’m done lying to myself. Through this program, and seeing me through, and not just throwing me away, things have been happening. Good things, too. Cause we all have fun here. I feel like I finally found my family. I really do.
Recovery is a weird thing. There’s like a business to it, in a lot of places. But coming here, it’s not that. They arereally trying to help save lives here. Cause I been through it, and I’ve seen a lot of different aspects of recovery – no place has done me as good as Weld has, hands down. I’m just grateful to get to share this, because this is a program that needs to be promoted. It’s really difficult to find sincerity, anymore, in anything these days. Especially with what’s going on – people in the world are just getting pushed further and further apart. And you come here and you find a family.”
Thanks for sharing your journey, Gabe. We love getting to be part of such powerful stories of healing and hope.
Matthew Chapman works hard to make your home buying or selling experience enjoyable and gives part of every commission to help a person in need.