This Saturday will mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, an event that changed the lives of so many in our area. It also marks the one-year anniversary of Star of Hope Mission’s new Women and Family Development Center at its Cornerstone Community® transformational campus. Having opened it just two days before the storm, we’d moved 350 women and families in from our previous Transitional Living Center and our Women & Family Emergency Shelter. Little did we know that the 200 additional beds at Cornerstone Community® would soon be used to help not only the residents we had already been serving before the storm, but individuals and families that had become homeless as a result of the storm. The Women and Family Development Center soon became home to victims of Harvey. Women like Ramona.
Having lived in Houston for more than 20 years, Ramona had just recently moved into a new residence when the storm hit, flooding her workplace and home. She found her way to the NRG stadium shelter. But this traumatic event began to take its toll … having to adjust to the harsh reality of being homeless and without employment sent Ramona into a depression. Just when she felt as if all hope was lost she was referred to the Star of Hope Mission. Ramona made her way to the new Women and Family Development Center where she found hope, peace, and rest knowing she would be safe and secure. One-year later, Ramona’s life is much improved. She has gone through Star of Hope’s personal development program and plans to enter the Work Faith program to restructure and develop her life while building her self-esteem and growing in her relationship with God.
Today, Ramona is a living testimony of how God can bless you even in the midst of a storm.
To learn more about Ramona’s story of triumph, take a listen to our Star of Hope Podcast: Harvey Made Me Homeless.