WATERBURY — For months, Samantha Rosado’s “home” was a tent hidden in the woods behind a Walmart.
“I was literally living in the woods,” she recalled. “I had nowhere to go. I was depressed and felt hopeless.”
The 2007 Naugatuck High School graduate had always been a hard worker. She earned her CNA and PCA certifications through Stone Academy and worked steadily in restaurants and health care. But when her mother died in February 2023, followed just three months later by her father, grief and instability overwhelmed her. She lost her housing, slipped into substance use, and cycled in and out of shelters and temporary arrangements.
By mid-2023, Rosado and her partner were unsheltered, living through both summer and a brutal Connecticut winter in that tent. “That was one of my lowest points,” she said. “But even then, I told myself I wasn’t going to give up. My parents wouldn’t have wanted me to.”
Her story echoes a troubling reality. In January 2024, more than 3,400 people were homeless in Connecticut, a 13 percent increase from the year before. National studies show that people leaving prison or jail are nearly 10 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general public, fueling a destructive cycle between housing instability and the justice system.
Rosado herself became entangled in that cycle. A family dispute led to a misdemeanor assault third-degree charge in 2024, her first and only conviction. She was placed on probation but remained determined to change her life. That determination brought her to Community Partners in Action’s Waterbury Reentry Welcome Center.
At the Welcome Center, Rosado met Tracy, who helped her regain her driver’s license after it had lapsed. She also connected with Emily, a case manager who began meeting with her weekly. Together, they tackled everything from job applications to clothing needs to letters for probation.
“They gave me hope,” Rosado said. “Emily and Tracy were my steppingstones. They gave me the ladder, but I had to climb it.”
With their support, Rosado started to believe in herself again. “Emily helped me see that I wasn’t lost,” she said. “Every time I left the Welcome Center, I felt lighter.”
Still, stability was fragile. Without permanent housing, she struggled to hold steady work. Her probation officer once handed her a tent when she had nowhere else to stay. “That was devastating,” she said. “But I knew I couldn’t give up.”
In September 2024, Rosado was referred to CPA’s Waterbury Alternatives in the Community (AIC) program. The timing was crucial. At AIC, she found not just services but accountability. “I love coming to AIC,” she said. “It gave me stability and a reason to keep going.”
By then, Rosado had also begun to address her addiction more directly. After years of struggling with substance abuse, she committed to sobriety in July 2024 — and has remained clean ever since. Her goal at the end of that year was simple but profound: to get off the streets. With help from AIC staff and a referral to 211, she achieved it in December 2024, moving into her own apartment.
“I finally had a place to call home,” she said. “Having a roof over my head, food in my stomach — it feels like peace.”
Since then, Rosado has held steady employment, working regular shifts in a restaurant and as a pool lifeguard. A competitive swimmer in her youth, she said the job “felt like coming home.” She has also reached what she calls a “maintenance stage” in her probation — asking to remain connected with AIC, even as requirements lessen, so she can hold herself accountable and keep building momentum.
Looking ahead, she hopes to return to school at Naugatuck Valley Community College to finish her nursing studies, a dream put on hold after the loss of her parents and the closure of Stone Academy. “I still want to be a nurse,” she said. “I know I can do it now.”
From homelessness and relapse to sobriety, stable work, and an apartment of her own, Rosado’s journey was remarkable. She is quick to credit CPA staff for believing in her when she resisted to believe in herself. “Emily and Tracy helped me with everything — from clothes to job applications to just listening,” she said. “They never gave up on me.”
Her story is a reminder of how essential reentry services are at a time when homelessness and incarceration remain tightly linked and with state and federal funding being cut, how harmful the impact will be on people across the nation. Without the safety net provided by programs like CPA’s Waterbury Reentry Welcome Center and AIC, she says, her outcome could have been very different.
“There are so many people who give up,” Rosado said. “But if you take the steps and use the help that’s out there, you can change your life. It works. And it feels so good.”
Today, Samantha Rosado is more than just surviving — she’s thriving, thanks to her own determination and the support of those who refused to let her fall through the cracks. Or, as she put it: “I’m not lost anymore.”