Hung prominently in Justin Garrett’s apartment are three framed certificates, each recognizing his completion of a different program: a parenting course, substance use disorder treatment, and a fatherhood class.

More importantly, each piece of paper represents a hard-fought accomplishment for Justin, another step closer to the goal he once thought impossible: Reuniting a family torn apart by addiction, homelessness, and loss.  

“We just never gave up on ourselves. We never gave up on our kids,” says Justin, a former resident of Solid Ground’s Family Shelter. “We kept trying to pursue them as best as we could.” 

All that work paid off this spring when Justin was finally able to bring his daughter, 5-year-old Jayme, home to live with him and his son, 3-year-old Crimson. Today, Justin spends his days playing with his two kids, researching preschool options, and studying to become a state-licensed peer counselor so he can help others make similar journeys to his. 

All of it – the stable life, the reunited family, the hopes for the future – only became a possibility, Justin says, the day a Solid Ground case manager led him into his new apartment. “That’s where my life changed.”  

“Once I got housing, I was able to get myself back up on my feet. I was able to start doing all the services I needed to do: get my substance use disorder treatment started, do my parenting class, get my mental health treated,” he says.  

“All these things that I needed to do to get my kids back, I was able to do with the housing. It really saved my life.” 

Fighting for family 

In King County, homelessness and addiction are conditions that impact people at all stages of life, from veterans and retirees to college students and children. 

In fact on any given night, nearly 2,500 children under 18 in King County don’t have a place to call home – according to the last one-night count¹ – and many end up in foster care after being removed from parents experiencing homelessness and other hardships that make it difficult to properly care for their families. 

Being removed from one’s parents as a child, however, can leave harmful neurological and social-emotional consequences that last a lifetime. Studies² show that when safe to do so, children do much better staying in the care of their biological parents – and providing struggling parents with needed resources results in better outcomes than foster care.  

That’s why Solid Ground partners with Child Protective Services (CPS) and the Office of Public Defenders to identify parents who’ve lost custody of their children but are determined to do whatever it takes to win them back. 

Parents just like Justin. 

‘Losing ourselves’ 

Justin met the love of his life on – of all days – his birthday.

The year was 2019 and Justin was planning a birthday hiking trip to Snoqualmie National Forest when a friend asked if they could invite someone else to come along. That’s how he met Sherry.

“We just kind of hit it off. We vibed really well,” Justin says. “She was a fun, silly person. She used to love to laugh and make jokes.” 

The hike kicked off a whirlwind romance filled with weekend hikes and rock-collecting trips to Ocean Shores and Quinault National Forest. Soon they were living together, and in 2021 Shelly gave birth to their daughter, Jayme. 

But Jayme’s birth was not easy. Diagnosed with the genetic disorder Trisomy 21 (more commonly known as Down syndrome) as well as a diaphragmatic hernia and a hole in her heart, Jayme spent the first nine months of her life in the NICU. At several points, it looked like she wasn’t going to make it. 

“It was really traumatic for us, and we didn’t really know how to deal with our trauma,” Justin says.  

One day, looking for relief, Justin and Sherry decided to try a painkiller to see if would help ease their anxiety. It was a single pill, split between them – and that was all it took to launch them into addiction. 

“We didn’t know it was laced with fentanyl, but we quickly got hooked.” Justin says. “It just kind of snowballed into losing ourselves, losing our minds, losing our jobs, our cars, losing our housing. We slowly started losing everything. Our lives just kind of fell apart.” 

The couple was still struggling with the desperation of addiction and the care of their daughter in 2022 when Shelly became pregnant with Crimson, who was born already addicted to fentanyl – just like his parents. Justin and Sherry barely had a chance to welcome their new baby boy before he was taken away, along with Jayme, and placed in CPS custody. 

“When that happened, it sent us on a downward spiral,” Justin says. “We got lost in the darkness. We were on fentanyl, then we were homeless, bouncing around from hotel to hotel, just trying to get by. Then we were actually on the streets, staying with different friends here and there where we could. But it was just a miserable existence. We were totally hopeless.” 

Even amid the pain and desperation of addiction, Justin and Shelly were determined to get their kids back. They’d take four-hour bus rides to visit the kids at their foster home. They’d enroll in treatment and detox programs. But soon, they’d relapse and return to the streets. 

It was during one of those relapses that Sherry overdosed and Justin was unable to revive her. She was 43. 

“I was devastated,” says Justin. “I was lost, homeless, without my kids, without my wife. I kept praying for help. I didn’t know what to do – so I just got myself into detox and got myself clean. I used that experience of losing Sherry to strengthen me so I could get my kids back.” 

‘It gave me dignity’ 

But getting your kids back after they’ve been taken away by CPS is a long and difficult process, requiring many steps to prove that you’re able to provide your children with a safe, nurturing home. Doing all that while homeless, surrounded by the temptation of drugs and the constant threat of violence that comes with life on the streets, seemed impossible to Justin. 

It was then that his social workers connected him with  Family Shelter, which set him up in a townhouse in Magnolia and connected him with vouchers to furnish it.  

“I felt like I was back.” Justin says. “I felt like I was a person again. It gave me dignity. It made me feel good to know that I had a place to live, a safe place to stay.” 

Suddenly, not only did he have a stable foundation to work on the programs he needed to complete for CPS, he was also able to host his children for visits to prove to caseworkers he had what it takes to be a father to them. 

“For Crimson to be able to spend time with me at home, it really lightened him up,” Justin says. “I could see him just glowing when we would spend more time together. While he was in foster care, you could tell that it had an effect on him. When he got to be with me, he would just open up and kind of bloom. I could tell he was just developing a lot faster.” 

‘They can do anything’ 

When Justin’s time in Family Shelter was nearing an end, Solid Ground worked to secure him a voucher for an apartment in a brand-new Seattle Housing Authority building in Yesler Terrace. Crimson came home to live with him in November 2025 and Jayme followed in May – just in time to celebrate her 5th birthday.

“They play really well together. It’s like they can sense each other in the room,” Justin says. “He asked about her all the time, and when she’s here they’re inseparable – they’re like a little team.”

In terms of his hopes and dreams for his kids and their futures, Justin remarks, “The most important thing is for them to believe in themselves. I want them to know they can do anything if they just put their mind to it and have faith that it can be done.”

Solid Ground’s Family Shelter is supported by the Helen Martha Schiff Foundation.

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Sources 

1) Point-In-Time Count 2024, King County Regional Homelessness Authority 

2) Harm of Removal in Child Welfare, Family and Youth Justice Programs, Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts