When 24-year-old Jessica Freistat first spoke with Kaysie Strickland, president of Homes and Havens, she was intrigued by the local nonprofit’s mission to furnish and decorate the living spaces of women who had survived crisis, whether it be from homelessness, sex trafficking or abuse.
Having only recently escaped 11 years of drug and alcohol addiction, Freistat was grateful when Strickland offered to have her team work their magic in her home – though she wasn’t so sure much could be done to save her dingy two-bedroom apartment.
Freistat had moved into the apartment with a friend after they’d both spent nearly a year at Renew, a residential ministry operated by Calvary Chapel Chattanooga, whose staff had recommended her to Homes and Havens. Following her eight months at Renew reconnecting with her faith, Freistat was ready to start rebuilding her life. She had accepted a job as an office administrator at Calvary Chapel and started to get her life back on track, but every time she opened the door to her apartment, she found a barren dwelling furnished with little more than two mattresses strewn across the floor and a futon covered with cigarette burns and a seemingly endless supply of dog fur.
“Honestly, it looked like another trap house,” Freistat says, recalling the embarrassment she felt each time visitors found themselves sitting on the floor, just like they might at one of the run-down buildings where drugs are illegally sold. “Going right back to the same mess but being a different person it was hard.”
She had tried to find thrifty ways to spruce up the space, but with bills, car repairs and other more pressing expenses taking priority, she knew it would take years of saving pennies to achieve anything remotely resembling the country chic feel she envisioned – even with help from Homes and Havens.