Mark’s Story

For more than 20 years, Mark has watched Our Place Society change. But in many ways, he has changed alongside it.

Long before Our Place Society became the organization it is today, Mark was already part of its story.

He remembers an earlier Our Place. Smaller, simpler and still finding its way. He came through the doors as a volunteer, helping with meals, setting up for events and spending time with people who were experiencing homelessness.

He wasn’t looking for anything for himself.

He simply wanted to help.

“I’ve always wanted to help people,” Mark says.

At the time, he couldn’t have known how much those same doors would eventually mean to him.

Mark grew up in a large family where kindness, faith and helping others were deeply valued.

“That’s where I got my ethics from,” he says.

But as a teenager, his life took a different direction. He ran away from home and became caught up in drinking, and unhealthy relationships. Eventually, he found himself in situations that became increasingly dangerous.

“The party life isn’t the life,” he reflects. “It only eases the pain for a while.”

His Christian faith helped him find his way back, and Mark began rebuilding his life around the values he had grown up with – compassion, service and looking out for others.

Those values had always been part of him. Even before he needed support himself, Mark spent time helping people living on the streets, often putting himself in difficult situations because he believed everyone deserved to be treated with dignity.

Then, years after first becoming involved with Our Place, Mark found himself on the other side of the door.

After leaving an unsafe living situation, he became homeless. Although he had been paying rent, violence and instability had made it impossible to stay. For six months, he slept wherever he could find safety.

“It was hell,” he recalls.

Our Place was there.

Staff helped Mark navigate the housing process and secure stable housing – a home he has now had for more than 20 years.

For Mark, having a safe place to live meant more than having four walls around him.

“You feel like a human being,” he says. “You’re not worried someone’s going to steal your things or attack you in the middle of the night.”

But getting housed didn’t mean his relationship with Our Place ended.

In fact, it became something different.

Over the years, Our Place evolved. Programs expanded. New locations opened. Services grew, and the approach to supporting people became more human and responsive.

“I think there’s a more human approach now,” he says. “They meet people where they’re at.”

And Mark evolved too.

He moved forward with his own life. Today, he works as a gardener, writes for local publications and continues to pursue his passions for music and writing. He has built a life of his own, one that no longer depends on emergency housing or the supports he once needed.

Yet he still comes back.

For affordable meals. For writing groups. For karaoke and community events.

But mostly, he comes back for the people.

“The staff genuinely care,” he says. “They’re there from the heart.”

That is what makes Mark’s story different.

Our Place isn’t simply a place that helped him through a difficult chapter of his life. After more than 20 years, Mark doesn’t come back because he has nowhere else to go.

He comes back because he has somewhere he wants to be.

Mark knows what it feels like to need someone to see you as a person. He still tries to offer that same warmth to others.

Sometimes it’s sharing a moment over coffee with someone. Sometimes it’s connecting someone with a resource. Sometimes it’s simply stopping to listen.

“Don’t judge people,” he says. “Walk in their shoes first.”

For Mark, Our Place isn’t just a collection of programs, services or buildings.

It’s a community.

It’s the people who knew him then, supported him when he needed it, watched him build a life and still welcome him back today.

It’s family.

And perhaps that is the most meaningful measure of how both Mark and Our Place have evolved. Not simply that they have moved forward, but that after all these years, they have continued to grow together.

Mark is also a poet. Want to hear him recite one of his beautiful poems? Click below to watch him share his poetry!