There were good people and good programs that helped Brandon Mion escape a chaotic and traumatizing environment as he grew up.

As an adult, Mion made it his mission to help youth who're having traumatic childhoods similar to his.

Mion grew up in Mattawan, with parents who abused drugs. There was neglect, lack of food, deteriorating conditions, and the threat of violence. 

He was never homeless, Mion says, but a couple of times Children's Protective Services removed him and his siblings from their home, and they had to live with aunts in Paw Paw and Kalamazoo. 

Both of his parents eventually did become homeless and as he became an adult helping others he eventually was able to help his mother and father get stable housing, too. His father got housed in April, and Brandon had just helped his mother move into an apartment days before the interview. They're both working on recovery in their addictions.

Fran DwightBrandon Mion's phone is constantly going off with families looking for help.For himself, Mion "broke the chain," he says. 

He's now a McKinney-Vento Homeless Navigator, working for Integrated Services of Kalamazoo. 

Plus he's working what he calls his "God job," helping homeless youth at the local Ark shelter. And he has another part-time job working at a youth shelter in Grand Rapids, The Bridge. 

For ISK, "I work with families with kids in school," he says. They are "McKinney-Vento Families" who qualify for various programs, help with housing, and education, in accordance with federal law.

At the Ark, he works directly with youth who are homeless. "I see myself in a lot of them," Mion says. "I always try to be a mentor to them, and sometimes I tell my story." 

He doesn't often bring up his story, but he will if he needs to tell a youth in crisis, "Hey, I've been there. You've got to fight through it because you can get through it."

Now 30, he was married in the spring. He and his wife are expecting a baby. They moved to Grand Rapids, but he commutes to Kalamazoo. "Kalamazoo is still home to me, to be honest with you."

Fran DwightIn his office, Brandon Mion has drawers full of Kalamazoo families who've been helped, and who need help.His life now is very stable, and happy -- but the trauma he's been through leads to a lot of anxiety. "It's kind of nerve-wracking," he says, facing the birth of his first child. "I know I'm going to provide for my family, and for my child -- hopefully more than one kid," Mion says. "I just want to make sure that the chain's broken. I think there was a chain that was put on myself and my siblings, and it's broken."

Chain of trauma

At his office in Chenery, just down the hall from the Kalamazoo Public Schools McKinney-Vento office, Mion pulls out two file cabinet drawers packed with files of youth and families he's helped get a home. "Like, 150 families."

He then pulls out another drawer that's full of people who need help. He also has a stack of referrals that he needs to get to. Plus, his phone had been going off throughout the interview -- "Those are all families in need of help."

The two drawers of families who've found housing sound like they're full of triumphs, problems solved, but the biggest problem Mion sees in Kalamazoo is the recidivism rate. 

There are many "families who are housed, who don't stay housed after they receive services," he says. "Not just the program I work for, but all the programs."

Fran Dwight"I always knew, even when I was a kid, that I wanted to help youth that are going through craziness, essentially," Brandon Mion says.Mion chokes up as he talks about seeing "these kids get housed, and then three, four, five months later they lose their housing again -- it's like, why put these kids through that? They've already been through so much, whether they're at a shelter, staying with a cousin, an aunt.... Essentially, get them excited to not be homeless, and then, six months later, they're back on the street."

How does he feel commuting from Grand Rapids to do his main job? It must help him to know he's helping youth who are in dire situations.

"It does help, but it's very stressful."

Mion confessed that on the morning of this interview, "I was sick on the way to work." A reaction to memories that arose as he was recalling his childhood. Usually, "I try not to think about it."

Mion doesn't hold any ill will against his parents. He blames their sickness of addiction for his traumatic childhood. 

Fran DwightBrandon Mion is frustrated at seeing families who gain housing, lose it again. "Why put these kids through that?... Essentially, get them excited to not be homeless, and then, six months later they're back on the street.""My parents' drug use really evolved after losing both of my grandmas within a month of each other," at the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006. "They used drugs to help cope with the grief they felt, and unfortunately, my siblings and I really felt the effect of their drug use," he says.

Their addiction led to "25 years of bad decisions." His father in 2019 moved out to be homeless, his mother let in squatters who eventually burned the house down in 2022.

Mion brought up fragments of memories. 

The family home in Mattawan, deteriorating with neglect. "The house was basically unlivable." There were many times they had no electricity, no food.

Fran DwightA reminder in Brandon Mion's office."Growing up, we were brought into drug houses.... We were babysat by drug dealers." 

When he was 8, dealers came to his home. He overheard them threatening to kill him and his siblings if his parents didn't pay up what the dealers felt was owed. His father chased them off with a shotgun. 

He saw his mom OD from a variety of substances that had her sitting on the couch, catatonic with one leg twitching, for days. After three days of his mother in the same spot seemingly awake but not aware, Mion's dad said, "Hey, I love you guys, I really do. I gotta call EMS."

They knew what would happen when outside health professionals saw their situation. His mother was brought back to life, and he and his siblings were forcibly removed from the house by Children's Protective Services.

That was the first of two times he was removed to go live with aunts.

The helpers

These days, Mion would rather think about those who helped, and how they inspired him as an adult. "We had a CPS worker that was a kind of a role model of mine. We had a therapist that would come to our house (when he lived with his parents)... She told me I was a glue for the family, and she said I'd make a good social worker one day."

Fran DwightBrandon Mion has a stack of referrals that he needs to get to.There were services that, though he didn't think of it at the time, were a big help for him.

When he had to live with an aunt in Paw Paw, he and his siblings were embarrassed to take a "short bus" to his school in Mattawan. Then later, in high school, he lived with another aunt in Kalamazoo. A cousin drove him to Mattawan High, but he needed rides back to Kalamazoo. So each day a Mattawan faculty member would drive him back to his aunt.

The short bus, and the drive back to Kalamazoo, he realized as an adult, "that was McKinney-Vento making sure I was able to stay in the same school district." 

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act authorized federal help in the education of children experiencing homelessness or at-risk. "It is an act that says that school districts have to provide an equitable education experience," he says.

McKinney-Vento guidelines state that "homeless can be living in a car, sleeping outside, living with family or friends...." he says. Mion didn't consider himself as homeless, but he fell under the guidelines, so was able to avoid the extra trauma and risk to his education of having to change schools back and forth.

Fran DwightNow 30, married and expecting a child, Brandon Mion has anxiety about his future. But he declares that he's "broken the chain." "I always knew, even when I was a kid, that I wanted to help youth that are going through craziness, essentially," he says.

Mion was able to get to Kalamazoo Valley Community College to earn an associates degree in business administration. (He points out that, again, this was through help of a program, the State of Michigan’s Tuition Incentive Program, to help low-income students who’re on Medicaid to get a degree). 

But, driven to be one of the helpers, he went to work at ISK in 2018, where he's had his current role since 2023.

"Good people"

Mion came to Second Wave's attention through Kalamazoo advocate for the unhoused, Judy Lowery. 

Lowery writes, "I could talk all day about Brandon. LOL!"

Fran DwightShe tells Second Wave she's worked alongside people who've experienced housing insecurity who are now putting in the time to help others. Lowery sees some who "want to do everything for others," but she thinks that is not always empowering -- it’s not following the saying, "give a person a fish and they'll eat for a day; teach them to fish, and they'll eat for a lifetime."

Then there are others "who didn't get the help they needed when they were struggling, and now believe that others have to go through the same hard pain." They feel people have to "earn" help while struggling. 

"Brandon strikes a rare and powerful balance," Lowery writes. 

"He doesn’t just hand out help—he walks beside people, teaches, supports, and empowers."

"Brandon often says that he believes he should spend 80 percent of his time with his clients and only 20 percent on paperwork. That might sound small, but in the social service world, it’s almost revolutionary. And he lives by it. Whether it’s bringing a toy for a child while talking with their parents, or quietly making sure someone has what they need without making them feel ashamed, it’s those small acts of dignity that leave a mark," Lowery writes.

"And I’ll say this — every single client I’ve referred to Brandon has come back to me saying how incredible he is, and thanking me for connecting them to him. That doesn’t happen often. He’s one of a kind," she writes.

Fran DwightBrandon Mion shows a sheet of paper stamped with messages of hope and thanks sent to him by youth he mentors at The Ark."I think there's a lot of people that do this work that have a background" in being housing-insecure, Mion says. "It makes you a little bit more equipped to do it with a background." 

But it seems because he's gone through the "craziness" of a traumatic childhood, he gets more stressed in seeing, for example, families get housing but then soon getting evicted to live on the streets again.

People get help, but then fall back because "there's a disconnect, whether it's case management or — I don't know what it is," he says. "A lot of people get connected to ongoing case management, but it doesn't seem like it's really making a difference... I don't know what the answer is, to be honest with you… It's not fair, to the kids, especially."

The needs in Kalamazoo are obvious to Mion.

"Kalamazoo definitely needs more funding, more affordable housing. I think there needs to be more programs that help teach people the consequences of eviction. More programs that help people get gainfully employed," he says. "This is all stuff people have talked about for years."

Schools are stepping up to make sure youth stay in school, "doing what they have to do to help break the chain."

But for youth, what's needed are role models, Mion says. 

He remembers "Eric and Mike," older mentors who showed Mion, "there's a different way to live that doesn't have to be like that.... You can go get a job, you can go finish school, you can go buy a home, have a family." 

There are programs and social workers who work to do good in this area, he says, but "it should be someone different, somebody that makes a good connection" to mentor youth in crisis.

"I think Kalamazoo just needs more good people, to be honest with you!" he says, laughing. "People that care. Not just Kalamazoo, but in general."

"I don't have the answer, I don't have the solution. You know, I just try to be a good person."Fran DwightBrandon Mion works with those families who qualify for various programs, help with housing, and education.