Melvin Pickett ~ After 20 Years on the Streets, Finally a Place to Call Home

For two long decades Melvin Pickett, 54, went without a stable home.

“I would have a room but never an apartment. Sometimes I stayed at Cherry Street Mission. I had my Social Security checks. St. Paul’s and Unison would help me out, but I didn’t have my own place.”

Drugs were part of the problem, as he self-medicated to deal with behavioral health problems.

“I’ve got six years clean,” he said. “That’s a good long time. To this very day, I go to AA three times a week. I live in a place that doesn’t tolerate drinking or drugging.”

His home is NPI’s newest program, Safe Haven, located west of downtown Toledo. Staffed 24/7, the beautiful 12-unit facility houses those with mental illness who have been chronically homeless.

“He’s committed to his recovery, and he’s doing what he needs to do to stay housed,” Safe Haven Resident Manager George Moore said. “He’s real cooperative, helpful and thoughtful to everyone else. He’s a role model.”

Specifically, he has talked with young men in the program about life skills such as personal hygiene and meals. He also watches out for the female employees of NPI who work the overnight shift, according to Safe Haven staffer Pamela Banks.

With NPI for five months now, he loves having his own bed.

“The best part of having your own place is at night. You don’t have to wait in line to get a place to sleep,” he said.

He doesn’t complain about life on the streets however.

“I would preoccupy my time with something healthy” like chess, he said. “I stayed out of trouble. Time went by—the next thing I knew it was 10 years.”

He still sees his friends in the homeless community, some of whom he has known for 15-20 years: “I come to the Cherry Street Mission and play a little chess, but I’m not homeless anymore.”

By all accounts he knows his way around the chess board.

“He’s beat me a couple times,” Mr. Moore said with a smile. “He’s very strategic—always a move or two ahead.”