Willie Davis had a hot temper and a short fuse. An Alabama native who had worked five years as a roofer, he migrated to Atlanta to live with a cousin. He fell into drug use and quickly hardened on Atlanta's worst streets. When another addict pulled a knife on him in an argument over $5, Willie realized something had to change.
"I went to a shelter in the city, but it was a bad place. You had to fight to survive. There was no peace there," Willie recalls. "I knew MUST Ministries was a good place you could come and get yourself together, so I started coming out for lunch."
He angrily popped off at a MUST staff member one day, then apologized to her the next day. He was shocked when she said, "Willie, it's God" and referred him to a caseworker, for doctors' appointments and an anger management class. Eventually Willie was placed in an apartment with MUST's Permanent Supportive Housing program.
"In 11 months with MUST, it's just amazing how much I've grown. Everything that's behind me is behind me," Willie says. "I can breathe. When I go to sleep, I don't have to worry about my stuff getting stolen. I'm on a whole new level. I feel like the sky is the limit."