GASTONIA, N.C. —  In 1999, Shaaron Funderburk opened her home to eight women who were battling homelessness, drug addiction and sexual abuse.

What You Need To Know

  • In 1999, Shaaron Funderburk founded "Off the Streets," a transitional housing program to help women fighting homelessness, drug abuse and sexual abuse
  • After almost 25 years, the program has helped over 2,000 women
  • Funderburk says the program works because she survived abuse and homelessness, which helps the women relate to her struggles

With some help from community leaders, Funderburk founded "Off the Streets," a transitional housing program for women. 

“Early in this process, the plan was to house women and to house them in a safe environment," Funderburk said. 

She now has a new building, which is a home she helped renovate, where the women stay for a few months while they learn how to put their life back together and battle substance abuse. 

"We want the place to feel warm, to feel like home," said Funderburk. 

As a young girl, Funderburk lived through abuse of her own. 

“So the background, I was gang raped at age 11 by guys in the neighborhood and I walked around really angry and damaged for years behind that rape," said Funderburk

She said her senior year she tried marijuana and alcohol for the first time. She continued to abuse alcohol to numb the pain from her traumas and ended up living on the streets. 

"At first it helped the problem, and then alcohol became the problem," said Funderburk. "I was living on the streets, eating out of garbage cans. Two years flat on the streets. I stayed under a bridge, probably 6 months, I lived under the bridge until I said, 'enough is enough,'" she said. 

Funderburk says a woman helped her get clean, but that's when she realized there was a need for a rehab program led by women for women. 

Vickie Loveday is one of the hundreds of lives Funderburk has saved through her program. 

“When I hit the age of 21, I was a full-blown addict and there was no stopping me. I was a menace to society. I couldn’t hold a job," Loveday said. 

Loveday also battles with schizophrenia. She says thanks to the Off the Streets program, she has been drug free for 14 years. 

“I stayed here for 6 months, and it was probably the best 6 months of my life. She taught me endless ways on how to take my life back as a woman in society," said Loveday. 

She's also now a full time volunteer with Off the Streets.

Funderburk says her program works with a little bit of tough love and having experienced the demons these women live with every day. 

“Women was my primary target because and I know what it's like to be on the street, I know what it's like to be out there, I know what it's like to be homeless, so my passion is women. And you cannot do this alone, and it's OK," Funderburk said. "I tell people, 'Why would God put this many people on this earth if we're meant to be alone?'