Housing
We support people as they work toward safe, stable housing. Navigation, move-in essentials, transportation, and follow-up can help turn housing into a home.
The story behind the mission
Built from survival.
Driven by purpose.
The testimony of Princeton Witherspoon
My name is Princeton Witherspoon, and my story comes from the streets of Duluth.
I am the oldest of five children. My mother raised us alone and did everything she could, but we struggled. We moved from house to house and never really had a stable home. I grew up without a father in the house. I do not even know my father’s name. My uncles were the closest thing I had to male role models, and I am grateful for them.
I was a troubled and lost young man, but underneath that trouble was a child searching for love, direction, and somewhere to belong.
When I was 16, my mother was murdered by her boyfriend. She was shot in the head and buried in a shallow grave.
Part of me was buried with her that day.
I carried pain, anger, and confusion that I did not know how to handle. I eventually began using drugs—not because addiction was the life I wanted, but because I was trying to escape pain that felt too heavy to carry.
Nobody grows up wanting to become homeless.
Nobody dreams of becoming addicted.
That was never the life I truly wanted.
I experienced homelessness for more than 15 years—more than 5,475 days and 131,000 hours of running the streets, searching for somewhere safe to sleep, and trying to survive. I spent more nights outside than inside a home. I knew what it felt like to be hungry, cold, hurting, and overlooked.
I was the person people walked past.
I was the person who needed help but did not know where to find it.
I was the person who was not educated about the resources that might have changed my life.
Along the way, I lost many people to murder and overdoses. About two and a half years ago, I lost my own brother to a fentanyl overdose. Losing him made this mission even more personal.
He is one of the biggest reasons I started Foundation Recovery Services.
I could not save my brother, but I can honor his life by fighting for people who are still here. I can carry Narcan. I can educate people about fentanyl. I can connect families with help. I can stand beside someone before another family receives the call that changes their lives forever.
Even while I was homeless and struggling with my own addiction, I helped save people from overdoses with Narcan. I have watched people begin breathing again because I refused to give up on them.
Even when I did not know how to save myself, something inside me kept trying to save others.
I have also stood beside people who told me they wanted to end their lives. I listened to them, prayed with them, shared my testimony, and reminded them that their present pain did not have to be permanent. Some later told me that my words and my faith gave them hope that life could get better.
Sometimes saving a life begins by helping someone believe tomorrow is still worth reaching.
My struggles and choices eventually led to incarceration. I spent more than eight years—more than 2,920 days and 70,000 hours—behind walls. I struggled with my identity, lacked resources, and questioned whether my life still had value.
But that was also where I found God and developed a deeper understanding of my purpose.
God showed me that I had survived for a reason. My pain did not have to be the end of my story. It could become my purpose.
My scars could become somebody else’s hope.
That is when I realized helping people was not just something I had done along the way.
It was my calling.
That is why I founded Foundation Recovery Services. I want to become the support I once needed. I want to help people find recovery, housing, transportation, basic necessities, mental-health support, overdose-prevention resources, reentry assistance, and genuine human connection.
I want to address the real problems on our streets because I did not study them from a distance—I lived them.
I do not speak from a textbook.
I speak from experience.
I speak from scars.
I speak as someone who was once overlooked.
I cannot bring back my mother, my brother, or the other people I lost to murder and overdose. But I can honor them by fighting for the people who are still here.
Today, I am formerly incarcerated, living in recovery, and committed to turning my suffering into service. I am still growing and rebuilding, but I am living testimony that change is possible.
If I can survive everything I have been through and still find purpose, somebody else can too.
Your lowest moment does not have to become your final destination.
“I survived the streets. Now I want to help other people find their way home.”
Princeton Witherspoon Founder & Executive Director