“There will be many more like me that will walk into Nellie’s … and come out stronger for it.”
In 2017, Krystal Joseph showed up on Nellie’s doorstep, pregnant with her two-year-old daughter in tow. She had just a few hundred dollars to her name and nowhere else to go.
“I was so scared that first night. I had no one else here in Canada but the staff at Nellie’s took us in like we were family,” Krystal told us back in 2019 after she had moved into her own apartment with daughters Joshae and Journeiy, who was born at Nellie’s. “The staff at Nellie’s made me feel special and safe. They gave me hope.”
Krystal and her girls lived at Nellie’s for 14 months. In that time, she began to process the trauma she experienced, learned how to cook on a budget, developed a better understanding of how to manage her finances, passed her high school equivalency exam, started college, volunteered often, and found her first job in Canada.
In the Spring of 2022, we caught up with Krystal to chat about where life has taken her and her girls. It’s been an amazing adventure, to say the least, and she has made it her mission to support those facing difficulties similar to the ones she once faced.
“I have used my experience to show others that homelessness is not the end of the world and that many of us are only one pay cheque away from being homeless. We don’t know what tomorrow brings, but if we hook up to the right support we can have a successful life moving forward,” says Krystal.
First, she worked with vulnerable youth in Toronto. When the pandemic hit, she became a case manager at one of the city’s shelter hotels. Recently, she moved to Hamilton to work with women living at Good Shepherd.
“I want the women I work with to know that I know what it’s like and that I’ve been there. But life doesn’t stop because you move to a shelter. I tell them that nothing has been taken away from you; you still have your integrity and your dignity and you can persevere,” she says, adding that some days however, she is still in awe of the fact that she works as a case manager, considering she herself once had a case manager.
Her living and working situations are not the only things that have changed since Krystal left Nellie’s — her family life has also changed. In 2021, she married her partner, Prosper, and they welcomed son, Micah, to the family. Big sisters Joshae, now 6, is learning to read and write and dreams of being a gymnast, and Journeiy, now 4, fills every room with joy, love and peace.
Krystal has dreams beyond working in the social service sector and is currently exploring her options to pursue a political science degree.
“Any contribution people make to Nellie’s is money well spent, I’m living testimony of that. I’m not the only Krystal in the world, there are many more Krystals like me that will walk into Nellie’s, be in need as I was in need, and will come out stronger for it.”
