Ametiszt Hajdu was in a bad place.
She had gotten hurt at her job, then hooked on the painkillers that were prescribed to help her deal with the injury.
“I lost my job, my apartment, my car — everything — and I was living under the bridge or in the creek for many, many years,” she remembers.
She quit the drugs once she became pregnant, but her living situation was still quite dire after her daughter Adelynn Island was born.
“We were living in an abandoned house that had no ceiling, no roof — it had rats and all kinds of yucky stuff,” she says.
They went to live with a relative for awhile, but found themselves out on the streets again after plans to move into an abandoned RV fell through.
Fortunately, Hajdu then learned about the Winter Nights Family Shelter, which would help get her back on her feet by providing emotional, financial and housing support. These days, Hajdu and her daughter — now 4 years old — have a place of their own to call home in Pleasant Hill.
“All of this is possible because I was at Winter Nights shelter and they helped me get my car fixed, they helped me keep up with my job,” Hajdu says. “I cannot put it in words what they have done for us.”
