The apartment, with its dried flowers and bible verses, was a stark contrast to the words the woman spoke. “If I hadn’t come to San Diego, I would be dead.”

Angelica began her life in Northern California, born into the care of an abusive father who exposed her to alcohol and drugs throughout her childhood. By the time she turned eighteen, she had fallen into circles of dangerous gangs, dealers, and criminals. She was addicted to hard drugs and alcohol, mindlessly surviving each day. Looking back, she says there was no thought behind each action she made. “When you are on drugs,” Angelica said, “You don’t really think…you don’t know what is going to happen to you, so you have to have thick skin.”

She did not dream of her future, too trapped in an endless cycle. Motivation to quit and become clean was constantly undermined by another reason to keep using. Desperation brought on by addiction and financial strain from being robbed sent Angelica into a mindset of revenge and anger. There wouldn’t be another chance if she did not get out now.

A one-way ticket to San Diego inspired a move that would change her trajectory. There was no looking back.

She spent the journey praying that she would find the support she needed and could build her life anew.

With no friends or family, her first few nights in San Diego were spent in an abandoned RV. Blessed timing, a bed opened up at Catholic Charities’ Rachel’s Promise: one of three interconnected services helping women who are unhoused under Rachel’s Program.

A shower, new clothes, and a bed of her own, Angelica hoped this would be the fresh start she had always worked so hard to find.

Rachel’s Program offered a supportive community with the services she needed to rebuild her life. Accountability helped her, and the other women she lived with continued to stay sober. For Angelica, promises for her future were far better than memories of her past. “I don’t look back,” she spoke candidly, “… my family don’t ever want me to go back…they come out here to visit me.”

Recovery was never going to be simple. But the team at Rachel’s Program gave Angelica her confidence back and reminded her just how much she could still give to the world.

Overcoming all she had been through, Angelica graduated from the McAllister Institute and, with the help of Catholic Charities, has moved into her own housing. She shares her story unapologetically with groups across San Diego, proud of herself and her journey, endlessly grateful to the team that helped her along the way.

Catholic Charities did not just save her life; it offered her a future.

According to the 2023 SAMHSA report on Substance Use, with treatment and support, 73% of those suffering from substance dependencies can recover; however, communities who are unhoused lack access to these services, which enables addiction and feeds into chronic homelessness.

Catholic Charities’ services for those who are unhoused provide support, community, compassion, and high-level medical care to individuals wherever they may be in their journey.

The hardest step of recovery for a person battling addiction is knowing that it is time to find help. Wherever an individual who is unhoused may be in their recovery journey, Catholic Charities is there to meet them where they are.

To people wanting to support Catholic Charities, Angelica says, “…they are donating to a good cause. We need shelters, especially in San Diego. For people who are homeless, or domestic abuse, or from another country, we need it…A safe place.”

Turn dreams into reality; Every donation to Catholic Charities helps someone take their first step toward a life of new beginnings.