ALPENA — Christina Kihn’s message for those seeking help at the Center of Charity is simple: If she can rebuild her life, she believes others can too.
Kihn, who directs the Alpena nonprofit, said her perspective comes from her own experience facing homelessness with her two sons. After serving several years in the military, she was working for Charter in 2018 when she lost her job.
“It was quite the situation. The world kind of came crashing in,” Kihn said. “No one tells you this when you’re growing up that it only takes two paychecks sometimes until you’re facing a situation where the bills are piling up and you just can’t pay them.”
A month later, Kihn said she and her children became homeless. Without a vehicle, she relied on Alpena Dial-a-Ride to get to the soup kitchen and bring food home.
She briefly considered returning to the military, but said she ultimately could not sign over parental rights to her sons. A conversation with her father pushed her to reassess her situation.
“My dad made a phone call to me one day and he said, ‘Hey, how’s your prayer life?’” Kihn said. She said the question prompted her to confront how much she was struggling.
A call to 211 connected her with the Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency, which helped her return to work. Kihn said she took two full time jobs — helping homeless veterans and working as an armed security officer at the Air Force base in Alpena — driven by a fear of becoming homeless again.
But working 80 hours a week made it difficult to be present for her children. Kihn said she prayed for a chance to be home more, and soon after learned of an opening at the Center of Charity.
“We haven’t turned away anyone who’s come to us in need,” Kihn said. “We just as Jesus did, we look beyond sin and look towards the person that they can become.”
Kihn said her experiences help her guide others through challenges she once faced, whether connecting them with food, housing or utility assistance.
“We want to put those resources at their fingertips and let them decide which path they wish to choose,” she said. “If a person needs, let’s say, their lights are being shut off, we have a step-by-step process that we’ll go through.”
Kihn said she hopes the center can be the resource she didn’t have.
“I’m glad that we act as a hub because I didn’t have that,” she said. “If I had a place like the center that was open when I was homeless, I wouldn’t have lost the place I was staying. I wouldn’t have lost my vehicle.”
For her work, Kihn has been named a finalist for the Lumen Christi Award.