Kara Zordel has worked with homeless people for nearly two decades and has learned that everyone on the streets has their own painful story for why they’re there.

Sometimes it’s a major health problem. Or the breakdown of a marriage. Or the loss of a job. Or the inability to pay rent. Sometimes it’s all of the above, mixed into “one of those atomic life bombs,” as Zordel put it.

Ironically, the longtime CEO of Project Homeless Connect, the city’s one-stop shop for homeless people to receive services, is now experiencing the fallout of one of those atomic life bombs herself.