Support Joey's Journey to Stability

Hey everyone!

This week, my roommates and my family came across a man named Joseph Chambers, “Joey”.

It all started Monday, October 21st, when we found out Joey was living in our garage at the bottom of the hill our house is on. Obviously, at first, we were NOT happy with this. We had not met Joey at this point, but the neighbors said he was extremely friendly and truly a great guy. Come Wednesday, we knew it was time to make Joey leave. But that night, we had the chance to meet him.

Instantly, Joey was one of the kindest people we have ever met. There is a major stigma around homelessness and homeless people, and Joey happens to get caught up in this stigma. Joey had the opportunity to prove to us that he deserves way, way more.

The night we met Joey, he gave us a letter. He wanted to explain himself and tell us a little about his upbringing. I will attach the letter for those who want to read, but in a gist, this is Joey’s story:

In 2015, Joey and his dog were in a fire. Joey’s dog’s name was Buddy, and Buddy was two years old. Joey claims that Buddy was his hero and saved his life that night. After the fire, Joey spent 28 months in the hospital recovering from third-degree burns all over his body. Because of this, he lost everything, including his house. Joey worked his entire life, but due to the length of the hospital stay, he was out of work and couldn’t make the rental payments. This landed Joey on the streets of Birmingham with his companion, Buddy.

Now, flash forward to 2024, he was found living in our garage with Buddy. Last Thursday (10/17), Buddy got a hold of some pumpkin spice candle wax and got very sick. Buddy became very disoriented, walked into the street, and got struck by a car. Joey has been absolutely devastated since.

There has not been a single second where Joey has not been anything but kind, respectful, and grateful. We were able to provide Joey with a few meals, some money to get him a phone, and a warm winter jacket.

Joey gets $800 a month from drawing disability and social security. He said that this just is simply not enough to have an apartment because when he did, he only had about $20 a month left for food. Our goal is to help Joey find an apartment, put the deposit down, and give him some more money each month for food!

We have not questioned Joey’s integrity a single time and feel like Joey found us for a reason! Joey deserves kindness!

Homelessness is a pandemic in the Birmingham area, and Joey does not deserve to be stuck in it. Help us to surprise Joey with the gift of a lifetime!!