Client Voices: Meet Solid Ground resident Major

Major pictured in 2023.

By Melanie Rockoff, Manager, Grants and Communications

Major, 19, grew up in a southwest suburb of Chicago. When his parents divorced in 2018, his living arrangement was turned on its head.

After a tense few years living with his father, whom he describes as intermittently abusive and absent, Major was kicked out of the house in 2022. The inciting event? The purchase of a shirt his father deemed too feminine.

“I don’t want to throw the word ‘depression’ around, but I was really distraught,” he recalls. “All I’ve wanted my entire life was to be heard. Instead, I was just given titles like ‘son’ or ‘gay,’ but not a voice.”

Bounced from relative to relative, Major soon found himself, in his words, “homeless homeless.” After a brief stay at a neighboring emergency shelter, he moved into Solid Ground – La Casa Norte’s transitional housing program for male-identifying youth ages 18 to 21 – at the start of 2023.

With the support of his case manager, Tyrek Gates, and youth empowerment specialist Eric Gonzalez, Major completed his senior year of high school this past spring.

“Through homelessness, I still made sure I finished,” he says. “I could have given up. There’s so many things that could have made me a hard rock. But I had to just let it go. I know what I want to do with my life, and I’m not just going to sit [around].”

When asked about his newfound support system, Major glances over at Gonzalez, who is seated to his left, and smiles. “It’s the little things that matter to me,” he explains. “I was just like, ‘Wow, y’all actually care about me.’”

Major’s time in the program continues to be marked by growth.

“I’ve learned so much about myself since being at Solid Ground, and I like that it’s a judgement-free zone,” he says. “When I was younger, my life was so chaotic. I feel like I haven’t really had a moment to breathe until now.”

Still, Major has never been one to sit idle. In addition to working a part-time job in retail, he is studying to become a certified nursing assistant. In his spare time, he is a prolific and passionate creator of music and aspires to do so professionally one day.

Ever the pragmatist, Major continues to cultivate a professional contingency plan, just in case. “I could also see myself being a doctor or a social worker or a therapist. I just like caring for people and [being a] voice for people who can’t speak.”