HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) – Living on the streets for years, a Hartford man is thankful for something that can’t be found under the Christmas tree, a home.

With his feet on the ground, he’s saying thank you by giving back.

Keith Burton will tell you he didn’t start with a hand out, but a hand up.

Once he’s life turnaround, he had to pay it forward.

“I become homeless in 2001,” said Burton.

Life gutted this Jamaican-native when he lost his job, his car, his wife and custody of his son.

Whenever he stacks, he’s grateful of what he has now.

“Like job training, I go to classes where they learn to read and they learn to write,” Burton said.

Burton isn’t working his job, He’s volunteering at Fresh Place.

It’s a food pantry at Chrysalis Center that helps people.

“Transform people’s lives,” said Adria Giordano, Director of Development, Chrysalis Center.

The center offers a long list of resources and services to help people like burton overcoming challenges ranging from homelessness to life after prison.

In December 2013, Burton came to the center.

By 2014 and since then, he’s been intendent living with his son while dealing with another blow, the return of a brain tumor.

Still, he’ll tell you the same thing he’s thankful for every December.

“That I got a home,” said Burton.