CLIENT SUCCESS: Mark

For Project New Hope (PNH) Resident Mark Robledo, PNH really does live up to its name. “This place is a lifesaver. Without it,” he says, “I’d lose hope, walk in the streets.” Mark, 49, knows of what he speaks. A Long Beach native, he came to PNH in November, 2004, after spending years in a cycle of incarceration, release, homelessness and re-incarceration.
During a routine health assessment while being processed for his last incarceration, he tested positive for HIV. The result did not surprise him, as he had been sharing needles on the streets. (While he refused all HIV medication in prison, he is now being treated for the disease.) Upon his release from prison, he lived in temporary housing for a few months, and then spent two years at a transitional housing facility, where he participated in a substance abuse treatment program. While living in the transitional housing facility, he spoke with Anthony, a PNH housing staffer who placed him on the waiting list for a PNH permanent housing unit. When, after 16 months, a PNH unit was available for him, he “felt like he won the lottery”. Today, he is happy to be able to live without roommates and to have access to a kitchen so that he can cook fresh, healthy foods for himself. (He admits that his cooking skills are still rather rudimentary.) He adds that it comforting to know that the on-site Resident Services Coordinators care about his wellbeing and can help him access any supportive services he may need.
With his living and health situations stabilized, Mark, who is the father of an adult daughter and a grandfather of three, is putting his life back together. He is in his second semester at Los Angeles City College, studying to be a certified drug and alcohol counselor. For the last three years he has also volunteered to share his experiences with elementary and middle school students. In these speaking engagements, arranged through Los Angeles Unified School District’s Health Education Program HIV/AIDS Prevention Unit (funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the Peer Education Program of LA (PEP/LA), he emphasizes to students the importance of caring for themselves enough to stay away from drugs and other high-risk behaviors. “I tell them to have hopes and dreams,” he says.
As for his own hopes and dreams? Mark would like to stay at PNH for as long as he can. And if he ever does win the lottery, he’d like to build youth centers to help troubled youth. It would be his way of giving hope to others.