CLEVELAND — Michael Howard was the baby of 11 children. As a grown man, he's a father, an ex-husband and ultimately, a man who hit rock bottom.
Drugs and alcohol became his meals on the street and he found himself needing help. That's when he found himself at The City Mission of Cleveland, and a brand new chapter of his life began.
"I was empty. I was done. I couldn't function no more doing the things that I was doing," he told 3News anchor Christi Paul.
It was two years ago when Howard found himself outside of the City Mission. He was homeless and feeling desperate.
"I didn't come here to get sober," he recalled. "I came here to get a free meal, a breakfast and then a couple of days, man, I was like, wow, this is okay. I can do this."
Michael began to believe that, because suddenly, the people he was talking to were men who believed in him.
"They were kind, they were patient and they listened to what I had to say," he said. "They was willing to allow me to come in here and didn't nobody want anything from me, and I wasn't used to that because out there in the world that I was dealing with the drugs and the alcohol, everybody that did something for you, wanted something from you."
He says once he saw that things could be different, he realized he could be different too.
"I started opening up. I started beginning to realize that I was better than what I was doing to myself...I still cry a little bit."
Today, his tears and emotion sharing his story, come from the overwhelming awe that he could change his circumstances and change himself. Something he never believed…until now.
"I wasn't good with people. I didn't trust people...the voices of the men that came to me here to help me, it was like a breath of fresh air," he said. "I said, okay, this man wants to see me get better. That was the moment that things changed for me right there."
He says the people here at the City Mission's Crossroads program, have opened up a whole new world to him. They’ve given him the classes, the knowledge and the support to finally change. To finally, he says, surrender.
"Stop trying to run your own life. Because I lied to myself more than anything...I couldn't get clean by myself. I had to surrender to god. I had to allow him to help me change."
Michael says it’s how he’s now living his authentic life.
"Today I have a place to live. I'm employable. I'm better with people, and I actually have started to love myself. I didn’t know how to do that....it is amazing what you can do when you actually surrender."
To learn more about The City Mission of Cleveland and the Crossroads Men's Crisis Center, please visit here.