HIS STORY: FROM SURVIVAL TO SYSTEM BREAKING

CJ Melendez grew up on Chicago’s South Side navigating instability long

before he had the language for it. Born into foster care, moving through

placements, and aged out without a road map for adulthood. At 18, he was

suddenly on his own no safety net, no stable housing, no adults guiding

him through the realities of bills, trauma, or survival.

When he reconnected with his biological mother, she was fighting her own

battles with substance use. That reunion brought love, but it also brought

CJ face‑to‑face with the generational cycles he had been born into poverty,

addiction, instability, and the constant pressure to survive.

As a young adult, CJ experienced homelessness in an unusual way,

couch‑hopping, doubling up and long nights figuring out where he could

safely sleep. He was surrounded by community violence, drugs, domestic

violence, and sexual violence, not as headlines but as the environment he

had to navigate daily.In the middle of all of that, he found The Night

Ministry, where he finally felt seen. He worked their program, which led

him to La Casa Norte’s Solid Ground. Then COVID hit, and everything

around him started falling apart again. From job loss, instability, systems

shutting down, and support disappearing overnight.It was situation after

situation, watching his environment collapse while he was still trying to

build himself. These experiences shaped him, hardened him, and ultimately

pushed him toward leadership.

THE MOMENT EVERYTHING SHIFTED?

CJ realized something powerful:

Young adults aren’t struggling because they’re broken... they’re struggling

because the systems around them are.He didn’t want another generation of

young adults to go through what he did: learning adulthood through

trauma, navigating systems alone, and surviving without support.

So he built the organization he needed when he was younger.

BTS was born from CJ’s lived experience not theory, not textbooks, not

policy rooms. Now Cj speaks on national platforms to educate policy

makers on the realities of youth homelessness but also amplifying the voice of

his community for real economic stability to bridging the gap between

survival and success.