By KEITH UPCHURCH

kupchurch@heraldsun.com. 419-6612

DURHAM -- "I once was lost but now am found.'' [From "Amazing Grace"]

"Lost" is how the three Durham residents honored Sunday at Duke Chapel once viewed themselves before their transformation from homeless slaves to drugs to people with a future.

Light has returned to the eyes of William Hawkins Jr., Brian McLendon and Trico Newton. But where there is light now, there once was darkness.

"I was a broken, homeless, drug-addicted woman," Trico Newton, 46, said in an interview after Sunday's service. "And I also felt lonely; I felt like I was alone."

But thanks to the Housing for New Hope program, a new day has arrived for the Durham native.

"While I was there, I utilized everything the program had to offer, and now I stand before you a woman with her name written on a [housing] lease.

"I also have my family, my children, back in my life, and I don't feel alone anymore. I feel great, but I know the hard work really starts now. They gave me back a chance for a new life."

Her advice to others on drugs and without hope or a home: "You've got to dig down deep, and want to change your life. You really have to want it for yourself. And the best place to start is Housing for New Hope."

Newton said drugs nearly destroyed her, but she always knew that life wasn't meant for her.

"I knew there was nothing else left out there for me," she said. "I was getting too old, and I wasn't raised up to be like this -- to be a drug addict and be homeless. So it wasn't really me. I just had some downfalls in my life, like loss of jobs, death in my family. So that made me go to drugs."

"I just had to pick myself back up and rebuild myself," she said. "I have a lot of hope now. I can't go anywhere but up."

McLendon, 29, who lived most of his life in Raleigh but now lives and works in Durham, said his downfall was from drugs and alcohol.

"And I fight with depression sometimes," he said. "But it's usually brought on by drugs and alcohol."

He said the program "gives you time to completely detox from the drugs, and to be able to think clearly again. And then once you start working and buying your own stuff, you get that sense of pride back."

Hawkins, 54, who grew up in Louisburg and has lived in Durham the past 25 years, said the Housing for New Hope program helped him learn "freedom through responsibility."

"I wish my mother was here today," he said with a broken voice, "because she always wanted the best for me. And I loved her. May she rest in peace."