After more than two years, Laura DePriest will have a place to call home

Laura DePriest poses for a picture as she leans against a tree at William S. Hart Regional Park in Newhall on March 25, 2017. She is moving into a condominium on Tuesday after being homeless for two and a half years. Nikolas Samuels/The Signal
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For two and a half years, Laura DePriest did not have a place to call home. She struggled with drug addiction for 35 years, ever since she was 12 years old.

As a kid, she was in a situation where domestic violence was prominent. Drugs gave her the only relief she had in life, and thus, she leaned on them like a crutch.

But that lifestyle of drug abuse and homelessness is finally coming to an end. Saturday marked her 40th day sober and she is moving into a condominium on Tuesday. Like a phoenix, she is rising from the ashes of her past life, and starting a new one.

“I’m free, I can do everything,” she said “I’m thinking right (and) I’m seeing right.”

With Bridge to Home’s help, she is making her new home a reality. Bridge to Home is a local organization that offers support to homeless people in the SCV.

She found a condominium on Rainbow Glen Drive and is excited to move in. She will be sharing the condo with other people and in six months she hopes to move into her very own apartment.

DePriest finally decided to give up drugs after she lost her closest friend due to her bad behavior while high on methamphetamine.

“I would argue and fight with him,” she said while in tears. “It’s not his fault, it is mine.”

She hopes her friend will see that she is turning her life around and will give her another chance. He might even decide to fight his own demons of drug addiction.

DePriest is enthusiastic to create a new life for herself and move into her new home. One of the things she is most excited about is finally being able to take a bath.

“Showers are cool but a woman should relax in the bathtub and put her feet up,” she said

She plans to get her job back at Walmart and is getting baptized on Palm Sunday. She wants to volunteer at the homeless shelter she struggled at for so long, helping people get out of the situation she has become all too familiar with.

“I feel like I can make it out there,” she said.

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