EVERY SUCCESS STORY IS A GREAT STORY
Julie Flynn 
When Julie Flynn’s brother died of AIDS in 1993, her family refused to acknowledge the cause. A few years later, when the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 happened, her brother’s widow was living in New York. 2000 miles away, and unable to reach her sister-in-law, Julie panicked.
Julie had been in recovery from drugs and alcohol, but her sobriety was fragile, and the stress of 9/11 and the days that followed proved to be too much. Julie relapsed. She threatened to kill herself and everyone else.
Julie’s probation officer called her in that Friday afternoon and said, “Look, you’re either going to jail or going into treatment. You have the weekend to decide.”
By the next Monday, Julie had made up her mind. “I’ll go to jail and serve my time,” she said to the P.O. The P.O. told her that was the wrong decision and sent her to Siena Francis House, a program where she would stay for the next 21 months.
Julie is full of gratitude for her probation officer, and for many others who gave her support along the way: “The support I have gotten has been awesome.”
I had not been long ago that Julie was sleeping under bridges and on the front steps of churches, where she felt safer somehow. It had not been long ago that she was brutally beaten by 6 men.
Once at Siena Francis House, Julie was able to focus on her recovery and begin to regain her passion for serving others. Before she had become homeless, Julie ran residential programs for emotionally disturbed kids. “I knew social services,” she recalls. But those days were long past. Many years of pain and trauma had intervened.
Now sober, Julie decided to pursue a Master’s in Human Services. Along the way, she was supported and inspired by Marilyn Wegehaupt of the Health Care for the Homeless project in Omaha. “Marilyn had more faith in me than I did in myself,” Julie says.
She got involved in advocacy work and began serving on the city’s Continuum of Care Board and the Family Housing Advisory Board. Now in her fourth year of sobriety, Julie is the Outreach Coordinator at Siena Francis House, the program that had helped her so much along the way.
Julie speaks forcefully about ending homelessness, and calls for more and more voices. “Homelessness is a label, but it is misunderstood,” she says. “People are viewed as throw-away people…there are so many misconceptions.” She then adds, “I don’t know how many more voices we need.”
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