Changing lives at the Bowery Mission

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - There is something about the beds at The Bowery Mission that say "challenging": hard times, bibles, bunks tight. Some might call it growth. Certainly a whiff of discipline lives here, but mostly, just hard times.

When you think of the Bowery Mission and they work they do, this is the place you think. Since 1909, it has been at 227 Bowery changing lives. Seven days a week, morning or night, they offer help. The people they serve need them. Whether that's meals, healthcare, clothing -- services for the city's most vulnerable. 

Most of the people here have stories. The number of the men I talked to -- not all but some -- come from families where drug use or homelessness played prominent roles.

Jorge Colon is one of the success stories. Colon just started with the 21-day men's shelter program a year ago.

After Jorge's mother went to prison, Jorge was raised by others who also battled drug abuse. It wasn't long before he found himself a young parent and making the same poor choices he was shown as a kid.

The mission is rooted in religion. Chapel is daily. So is the love. The Bowery provides beds to 300 men and woman at six locations in New York and New Jersey. They help turnaround and bring purpose to lives gone off track.