Love and hope

Posted on by Brooke Randle
Little Bit and ATL
Photo by Brooke Randle

Four years ago, a chance meeting at a library changed ATL’s life for the better.

“I was at a point in my life where I was about to take my life,” the 32-year-old remembers. “I had just got out of rehab and had already relapsed again and was just pretty much stuck on the same path of self-destruction.

“She asked me for a cigarette,” he continues, gesturing toward his girlfriend, Little Bit. “Usually that’s my line. I knew it was special. I fell in love. We’ve never been apart since.”

The two had been living in tents until coming to the Ramada last year. ATL says that undiagnosed borderline personality disorder, as well as the death of his twin brother and father, led him to homelessness and self-medicating with street drugs as a young adult.

“This place has definitely changed a lot of lives,” he says of the Ramada. “I notice a lot of people have hope in their eyes or are doing things. It still feels like a dream to me, and it’s been a year.”

The couple have a housing voucher to use once a space opens and plan to start working with a recovery coach at the end of the month. They hope to start a family one day. Despite their struggles, both say that they wouldn’t change their experience of being homeless over the last few years.

“[Homelessness] helped me find love. It helped me appreciate love, give love,” says ATL. “It helped me find God, authentically and wholeheartedly.”

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