N.B. couple overcomes homelessness, addiction: 'If you don’t lose hope, you can change your life'

Mark Blackburn and Korlaia Paul have overcome homelessness, beaten addiction and now have affordable housing and full-time jobs.

They’ve gone from a life on the streets of Moncton to cleaning them up.

Mark Blackburn and Korlaia Paul have overcome homelessness, beaten addiction and now have affordable housing and full-time jobs.

Blackburn struggled for roughly twenty years.

Addicted to crack cocaine, he often stayed in the city’s abandoned buildings.

“I had no insight into the future. All I thought about was drugs,” said Blackburn. “I was in despair every day. I thought there was no way out.”

Paul’s problems started in high school.

Eventually she graduated from alcohol and speed to crack cocaine.