5 Years Homeless: How A Norristown Woman Survived Brutal Winters And Got Sober

NORRISTOWN, PA — For five years, a Norristown woman named Laura lived on the streets.

She was trying, as she explained to the Norristown Hospitality Center, but life was not going her way. She managed to set up camp in the woods along the Schuylkill River with her partner, Ian. She washed her clothes in the river. She got drinking water from a graveyard. She picked through trash for food and drinks.

To compound matters, she struggled with drug addiction. She told the Center she went in and out of phases of using crack, and speed. It made survival even more difficult.

But there was a small community among the oaks and the sycamores that line the brushy banks of that part of the Schuylkill. People who survive come to rely upon one another. In addition to Ian, she lived in the camp for a year with her 85‑year‑old step‑grandmother. Laura cooked for others who lived in those woods, a sheltered stretch of greenery between the river and the trail.

"I met a few kind people out there," she said in a heartfelt story that was shared by the Norristown Hospitality Center. "Two of them are still my friends."

Heat in the summers was life-threatening. Cold in the winters was life-threatening, with wind chills this year plummeting below zero. She and her community learned to adapt, finding shade and creative ways to bolster and warm their tents in winter.

Montgomery County has homeless shelters, and they've made renewed investments in programs and temporary housing in recent years. New facilities have opened in Norristown, Pottstown, and Lansdale since 2024. But these programs and facilities can't always accommodate the brutal realities of someone who has lived on the streets.

Drugs were part of it. But there were other considerations. Going to shelters, for instance, would mean leaving behind precious belongings, which could easily be stolen. Belongings like cookware and other things she relied upon to survive.

About nine months ago, she got sober. But even without drugs, seemingly insurmountable challenges remained. Chiefly, the climate.

Storms in recent years have been devastating. Tornados and powerful wind gusts brought down trees, ripping through camp.

After one storm this winter, most of her belongings and her campsite were destroyed.

She tried to go to the code blue shelter, but they would not take her with her dog.

"That could have been the end," she told the Hospitality Center.

She spent that night completely unsheltered with her dog on the streets, in frigid temperatures. The next morning she went to the Hospitality Center on 503 Chain Street and explained her situation.

Their team immediately went to work. Calls were made. Within hours, in coordination with the Ann Francis Foundation, they put Laura and her pup up at a motel in Pottstown for a week.

It was the break she needed. Committed to staying sober and with resources from the Hospitality Center and Ann Francis, Laura was able to find a job and assistance to pay for an apartment of her own. She'll be able to pay her own rent in the coming months.

"If it weren’t for Mike and the people he works with at the Hospitality Center, I wouldn’t be alive," she said. "I hope no one ever has to go through what we did."

To learn more about the Norristown Hospitality Center and to support their work, see their page here.