Connected: A DC Department of Human Services Podcast Department of Human Services

Mayor Muriel Bowser's "A Home for the Holidays" campaign affirms our #DCValues and common vision of making homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring in the District. 

In this episode of "Connected," the Gonzalez family, who experienced homelessness for five years, shares their journey with Mayor Bowser and DHS Director Laura Zeilinger, who joined the family of six to welcome them into their new home. The daily work of DHS to connect the District's most vulnerable residents to permanent housing is underscored by special moments like this. We're grateful to this family for sharing their experience and being an inspiration to families and individuals experiencing homelessness.

 Listen to the latest episode of DHS' Connected podcast to hear more about the Gonzalez family. 

In 2014, Nina, after losing her mother to Cancer, had a nervous break-down. She began to hear voices seemingly triggered by her first visit back home to Connecticut after her mother’s passing. She was committed to a mental health institution there where she was provided treatment and released a few months later in December, but reports that the voices returned by March 2015. “I went through all of these suicide attempts because I just didn’t want to live anymore. Life was becoming too much to bear. I didn’t understand where the voices were coming from, or why the Lord would put me through this, and I didn’t know how to stop them,” Nina recalls. Listen to lean about the program that helped Nina changed her life.