Living in a Car for a Year, Family Finds Hope in Knoxville Churches

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The Call, Holston Conference | September 10, 2024

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Stephanie McBrayer and her son, Aaron, lived in their car for a year before they received the assistance they needed to finally move into an apartment.

They were still in the worst part of the struggle, moving from parking lot to parking lot, trying to stay warm (or cool) and pay for gas and find restrooms, when Stephanie realized something. Of the four churches that played a major role in offering community and helping them survive, all were United Methodist.

“What puts the Methodist church in my mind is they say, ‘Yes, we can help,’ when you turn to them,” says Stephanie. “It reminds me of that Bible verse that says, ‘You fed us and gave us clothes when we needed it.’”

Stephanie McBrayer doesn’t understand why more churches don’t open their doors to help the growing population of people without shelter. In 2023, the United States recorded a 12% increase in homelessness to its highest reported level, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

“There’s got to be a way to reach out to them instead of feeling like you have to turn them away,” Stephanie says, referring to churches that are reluctant to get involved with unhoused people. “Are they worried about what people would think, instead of seeing if there is a way they could help?”

Now age 54, Stephanie is sometimes asked by Cokesbury United Methodist Church, one of the churches that helped her, to share her story of homelessness with people who could benefit or help make changes.

Stephanie shares her story with church and government leaders at a Justice Knox meeting in April 2024. Photo courtesy of Cokesbury UMC

Her story starts in a home where she grew up around addiction. Stephanie married young to get out of the home. “It wasn’t safe,” she said. “That’s why I don’t drink. I don’t experiment. I’ve seen what it does to friends and family.”

Stephanie and her husband had two children together and eventually divorced. Their daughter went to live with her father. Stephanie took Aaron, who had special needs as a child with Asperger’s syndrome.

Times were already tough, even when she was married. Affordable, safe housing was hard to find. As a single mother, Stephanie worked in a deli and cleaned houses to keep a roof over her son’s head. After the rental house she shared with another single mother was flooded, Stephanie found another apartment in North Knoxville.  

That’s where she encountered Fountain City United Methodist Church. “We had nothing,” she says, “and they became our family.”

A friend encouraged her to reach out to Fountain City, which offered Aaron a scholarship in the church’s after-school program. The congregation also rallied to provide furniture and a washer and dryer for Stephanie and Aaron. At Christmastime, Fountain City helped them with gifts.

“It’s exciting when a church goes further than what they do on Sundays,” she says. The mother and son felt comfortable enough to begin worshipping at Fountain City. They become members of the church in 2007.

  With the help of a special-education teacher who walked with him all the way, Aaron graduated from high school in 2013 and got a job as a bagger at a supermarket.

“We were doing pretty good,” Stephanie says, until the building they lived in was sold. The rent went from $450 to $1,200 a month. 

“This is where the decline happens,” Stephanie says. “This is where we became homeless.”

Mother and son moved to another rental property in another part of town. Within a short time, the landlord began using his key to let himself into the apartment when Stephanie was alone. Frightened and in a hurry to leave the situation, Stephanie moved to another rental house where she didn’t have a lease, just a verbal agreement with the owner about her monthly payments.

The McBrayers lived in the house for more than five years, until the owner needed to move into the house himself. Stephanie was served with legal papers, accusing her of trespassing and ordering her to leave the house within a week.

It was fall 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic was raging. Stephanie’s clients had temporarily suspended her housecleaning services, although Aaron was still working part-time in a supermarket. After a terrifying, tearful week of calling agencies for help, without success, Stephanie and Aaron moved what they could into a small storage unit and essential items into their car.

“We left many things behind. We never did get them back,” she said.

They tried to stay in budget hotels for about $300 a week, but eventually spent most of their nights in their 1999 gold Chevy Lumina. On the nights before Aaron worked, they stayed at a gas station nearby. Other nights, they parked in church and supermarket parking lots.

They were driving by a Knoxville church on a cold day in 2022 when they saw a “free drive-through lunch” sign. They pulled into the driveway of Norwood United Methodist Church where they received a hot meal that Aaron remembers vividly today.

“Sloppy joes,” he says. “It was sloppy joes.” Mother and son enjoyed the meal and the hospitality so much, they made sure to return for every monthly lunch that followed.

Stephanie began to realize that United Methodist churches were connected to each other when she heard that Powell United Methodist Church might help her get a hotel for a few nights. She went to the church and met a nice pastor, who said he could pay for three nights in a hotel, but after that, what would she do?

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve never been homeless before.” The pastor recommended a ministry called “Fig Tree,” located at Cokesbury United Methodist Church, where she could get resources and help to find a home.

“Once we got in the door, how amazing,” Stephanie says, remembering the first time she and Aaron walked into Fig Tree. Not only did Fig Tree offer computers, food, showers, and laundry facilities five days a week, the ministry also had case workers to connect them with agencies that help unhoused people.

After a year of living in their car, Stephanie and Aaron finally moved into an income-based apartment in November 2021. Their first home-cooked meal was meatloaf, Aaron remembers. While Stephanie was most grateful for a bed and kitchen, Aaron was most thankful for a bathroom.

“Everybody’s reasons are different for being homeless,” Stephanie says. Her struggle to find shelter was different because she refused to be separated from Aaron. Numerous times, they were told to split up and go stay in a women’s shelter and men’s shelter.

“We need to stay together,” she said. “This disability [Asperger’s syndrome] has these needs that require Aaron to stay with his family.” Stephanie also came to learn that agencies assisting the unhoused all have different requirements, criteria, and increasingly long waiting lists to hurdle.

One caseworker, upon learning the McBrayers stayed in a hotel whenever possible, said, “Well, you’re not homeless then,” before disqualifying them for assistance.

Even with housing and jobs, the McBrayers still have hard days. An unexpected car repair bill, for example, can obliterate their stretched-thin finances. But mother and son have found a community that cares about them and vice versa.

They still go to Fig Tree twice a week, where they eat with friends and Stephanie helps by answering questions for newcomers. Stephanie and Aaron also volunteer at Norwood United Methodist Church, where they are part of the team that prepares free drive-thru lunches.

They now worship on Sundays at Cokesbury United Methodist Church, where they recently, joyfully, spotted the special-education teacher that helped Aaron graduate from high school. Aaron is almost 30 now (his birthday is September 16, he says often), and he’s proud of his supermarket job.

“Some of our friends at Fig Tree say how amazed they are that we still come back to help serve, but that's where my heart felt so warm,” Stephanie says. “We found friendship there, and I feel like maybe if I see people still struggling, I can give them hope.”

Stephanie wants to look up the Bible verse that keeps coming back to her whenever she shares her story. She said it goes something like this:

“When we were hungry, you fed us. When we were cold, you gave us warmth. When we felt alone, we found love and friendship from you all. So now we feel it is important to give back.”

Holston Conference includes United Methodist churches in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and North Georgia, with main offices in Alcoa, Tennessee. Sign up for a free email subscription to The Call.

Annette Spence is editor of The Call, the Holston Conference source of news and stories from which this article is republished with permission..