“After a certain point, going back home wasn’t an option,” Trae remembers. “Anytime I’d go back, she’d kick me out.”

For three years, home meant wherever he could find a place to sleep—at a friend’s house, in a car, or somewhere else for the night.

Then Trae learned about Rezek House, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota’s two-year transitional living program for young people experiencing homelessness. Soon, he had something he hadn’t had in years: a studio apartment of his own.

Living at Rezek also meant learning how to build a life on his own. Trae found his first job packaging meat. It wasn’t work he loved, but it gave him an income and helped him begin preparing for what would come next. Residents contribute one-third of their income toward rent, with that money saved and returned to them when they leave the program.

“That really helped to prepare me for the next steps,” Trae said.

Those next steps have taken him a long way. More than two years after leaving Rezek, Trae is still living in the same apartment. He has a circle of supportive friends he met through the program and a medical assembly job that provides a stable income.

"I can honestly say I’m in the best time of my life right now,” Trae said. “I’m not struggling. I got somewhere I can lay my head. I don’t have to worry about sleeping outside, getting bit by mosquitoes or freezing.”

Then he sums up what Rezek House meant to him simply: “Living at Rezek was the most helpful thing that happened in my whole entire life, and that’s no exaggeration.”

Stories like Trae’s are part of the reason Immanuel holds its Flea Market each year. The items donated, the hours volunteered and every purchase made help support community partners doing life-changing work throughout our area. When you shop the Flea Market, your purchase becomes part of stories like this one.