Story Highlight: Skip’s TLC Memories

Skip, a former TLC resident, shares some of his favorite memories of TLC as the shelter begins a major renovation.

Skip found himself facing homelessness after a series of family emergencies, including a house fire. After a brief stay at a shelter in Lebanon, he was offered a room at TLC, Tenfold’s shelter for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. A portion of the TLC rooms are reserved for the Veterans’ Victory House program, which serves veterans like Skip, who served in the Coast Guard for eight and a half years. He accepted the room, moved into TLC, and quickly became part of the community there.

With the support of his TLC case manager, Sydney, Skip was able to improve his credit score, make a budget, and work on finding housing. In winter of 2024, he secured his own rent-controlled apartment and successfully exited the TLC program. Today, Skip is settled into that apartment and enjoying his new home. “I like the apartment, I like the area,” he says.

Although he is happy to be in his own housing, Skip also misses TLC. “There was this sense of community that’s really important there,” he shares. During his time living at TLC, Skip’s favorite thing to do was sit on the building’s front steps with some of his fellow residents, watching everything that happened on King Street. “I called us the Royal Order of Stoop-Sitters,” he says. “As a loyal member, you get to judge parking—which we did viciously sometimes—and judge people’s outfits.”

People-watching from the front stoop was more than just a fun pastime. It was a bonding experience that brought people together and built community. “It was like a sitcom,” says Skip. “You could solve the world’s problems in twenty minutes of sitting on those steps.” After successfully exiting the TLC program, Skip is still good friends with many of the people he met there and visits them regularly. Recently, he hosted a dinner party at his apartment for many of his friends from TLC.

He has also continued to give back to TLC by helping others who are still in the program. “I’m still in touch with everybody from TLC, and I help people out all the time,” he shares. He’s returned to TLC on several occasions and helps out by giving people rides and offering them storage space in his storage trailer.

Most recently, Skip helped several residents move to TLC’s temporary, off-site hotel location, where residents will live while the shelter undergoes a major renovation. The renovation will update aging utilities systems, remove the risk of exposure to outdated lead-based paint, and increase safety and accessibility throughout the building.

Reflecting on all the changes to come for TLC, Skip recalls a joke he shared with Jen Gehman, Tenfold’s Director of Supportive Housing, previously the Director of Programs at TLC. When Skip first moved into TLC, Jen made sure to warn him that the elevator, which dates back to TLC’s origins as a hotel built in 1910, would sometimes break down. “It’s a tiny little shoebox elevator,” Skip explains. Whenever he took the elevator, Skip heeded Jen’s warning and waited for the moment it would break down. “It never did during my whole time there,” he says. Although the two new elevators, to be installed during the renovation, will be a big improvement for future residents of TLC, Skip will always fondly remember the old elevator, and all of his experiences at TLC.

“It wasn’t just a building. The building was great, but it was the people that were there—the staff, how they treated us, and how we worked with each other,” says Skip. “It could’ve been a pretty traumatic experience, finding yourself homeless, but instead, it became a family.”

To read more about Skip’s experience at TLC, click here: Meet Skip. To learn more about the renovation of the TLC facility or make a donation to the project, click here. Your support allows TLC to continue helping individuals like Skip on the journey from homelessness to housing.