The video showcases McCreesh Place, a supportive housing community that provides safe, stable housing for formerly homeless men. Through heartfelt testimonies from residents like Frank Bryce and Adria, and family members such as Tish Pollack, the documentary illustrates how wrap‑around services—including medical care, mental‑health support, and weekly NA meetings—help residents rebuild their lives, reconnect with families, and regain self‑sufficiency. The program’s model also delivers significant fiscal benefits, costing less than a third of traditional chronic‑homeless care while enabling residents to pay rent. Overall, the piece emphasizes the community’s role as a lifeline, fostering a family‑like environment that transforms individual lives and reduces public healthcare expenditures.
Chapters
Oh, Heavenly Father, thank you for these guys who have deceased and gone on to be with you. And thank you for McCreesh Place. It's a safe haven for us, Lord.
McCreesh Place is a safe haven for 90 formerly homeless men like Frank Bryce, who was living in an abandoned building.
I wouldn't give nothing for the world for it. This is a safe haven. Ever since I've been here, life has been better. It's just been beautiful. I go to NA meetings every week, and we go in and talk about our problems, you know, and discuss that. You know, it's a good thing.
People aren't homeless because they don't have a place to sleep. People are homeless because They're not able to navigate the culture in the way that most of us are. And so to have them be successful in housing, we want to provide them with wraparound services that will help that stability.
I overcame it all, yes, yes.
Darrell Livingston joins Frank in the meetings. The community at McCreesh Place ended his isolation.
McCreesh was like a lifeline for me. I actually didn't really know what it meant to be a viable part of society because the major part of my life had been avoiding civilized human beings. Well, I think it makes us a safer community because people who are at risk have those risks attended to.
Whether it's medical needs, they get attended to.
Whether it's mental health needs, they get helped.
Sorry.
It's still freaky to me. But he's back, and that's what's important.
Supportive housing communities mend lives. Tish Pollack hadn't seen her brother for 27 years.
Well, you're worried, you know, and you're scared for him and, and Because there were mental issues involved, you were even more scared for him. You know, you didn't know whether or not, you know, he was gonna survive.
Thomas went into the hospital diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and I guess he started thinking about his family. So when I went to visit, me and the property manager, He charged us with finding his family before he left this world.
Cheryl called and said, do you have a brother named Thomas? And I said, yes. I've been here maybe every day with the exception of a couple, couple days. I am of the opinion that I just need to enjoy the time we have together. And kind of make up for not taking care of him years ago.
The more I'm around them, I dread the day I have to leave them. 27 years. But with this, it's all different because my, you know, they are my family.
A lot of the guys at McCreesh Place think that they have burned their bridges with their families and their friends and they no longer want them in their life. And I have to believe that that's what Thomas was feeling for so long. But the love and support that his family and friends are showing him now is just unbelievable.
Oh, I used to have to sleep outside in And I would sleep on a sleeping bag and had one to cover up with. And I stayed on the steps of a church on North Tryon. I stayed on the street for a long, long time. It was one day I had a real bad nervous breakdown.
Adria now lives in the supportive housing community at an offsite apartment.
So since I've been here, they helped me get back on track about going to the doctor, you know, taking my medications. So it's a good place to be.
The supportive housing community's lifeline saves taxpayers millions in healthcare costs.
It makes fiscal sense. It costs approximately $6 million to care for 75 chronically homeless people over a 2-year period, whereas here at McCreesh Place, which is run by Supportive Housing Communities, it costs less than a third of that.
And the formerly homeless here now pay rent.
It's good to know that, you know, he was self-sufficient and take care of himself, and he's probably one of the strongest people I've ever met. For what he's been through. People— there's so many people out there that don't know where their brothers or sisters or mothers or fathers are, and we were the lucky ones to get him back.
Over at McCreese, they got so many good people. They're a family. That place has been a miracle to me. Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me. Oh, oh, oh, stand by me. Oh, stand!
