Before Moutaz came to Water Street, he remembers a day when something as simple as a shower felt out of reach. 

He was working at a job at the time, trying to keep going, trying to do what he needed to do. But he hadn’t showered in almost two weeks. That day, he left work because he couldn’t keep pushing through it anymore. 

When he got a call from work asking why he had left, Moutaz told them the truth. “I needed to shower.” 

That was the place he was in — physically worn down, mentally exhausted, and carrying depression and anxiety that made even ordinary things feel heavy. 

Moutaz had come to Lancaster only two years earlier. He was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, and his family is from Sudan. When Moutaz was given the opportunity to come to the U.S. he saw America as a place where hard work could lead somewhere, where one could dream, work toward something, and see results. 

But the reality was much harder than he expected. He found himself struggling. He bounced from job to job. He tried to figure things out on his own. And eventually, he reached a place where he needed help. 

Moutaz first heard about Water Street after calling 2-1-1. When he first walked through Water Street’s doors, he didn’t feel confident or hopeful. He felt unsure. 

“I was in a dark spot,” Moutaz remembers. Most days, he kept to himself. He slept a lot. If it weren’t for meals, he said, he might have slept through the whole day. He wasn’t ready to open up. He wasn’t ready to trust people. 

Even when Moutaz wasn’t ready, staff kept showing up with patience. 

Melanie, one of Water Street’s social workers, would see Moutaz sitting alone. She would check on him and simply let him know she was there. At first, Moutaz wasn’t comfortable talking. But Melanie kept showing him that he had a safe person to go to. 

For someone who had been carrying so much inside, her not giving up on him, opened a door. “She made me feel safe, you know, and she’s been supporting me through the journey.” 

Other staff came alongside him too. Slowly, Moutaz began to see that Water Street was not just a place to sleep. It was a place where people would help him take the next step. 

“Coming to the mission was a big shift in my life,…It helped me believe in myself.” — Moutaz, WSM Guest

For Moutaz, that support made a real difference because before Water Street, he had been trying to carry everything, including his flailing mental health. At Water Street, some of those immediate pressures were lifted. There was food. There was shelter. There were people to talk to. There was structure. 

It didn’t mean life became easy. But it did mean he had room to breathe again.

Moutaz says Water Street has helped him become more organized and more self-driven. It has helped him believe he has something meaningful to work toward. He is thinking more about his future, making plans, including his dream of building his own e-commerce business. 

“Coming to the mission was a big shift in my life,” he says. “It helped me believe in myself.” 

Moutaz knows there are other people who feel the way he once felt — overwhelmed, stuck, and unsure if things will ever change. For them, his message is simple. “Don’t give up on yourself,” he says. “If you need some help, just come here and ask, and they will help you with joy.”