A year and a half ago, Douglas Holland lived on the street, sleeping in a moldy Army sleeping bag along a bank of the Augusta Canal, scrounging for food in garbage cans outside the Walton Way KFC.

Now he lives in a fourth-floor unit at Maxwell House Apartments with a kitchenette and a TV set. The far wall has a long window with a view of Greene Street's landscaped median, the Lamar Building penthouse rising above the tree line.

Mr. Holland said the joy he gets from looking out a window, feeling the sunshine pour in, can only be felt by someone who has been homeless.

"Once you get an apartment, your self-esteem comes up. You have self-worth," he said. "I'm able to keep clean. I do my laundry once a week now. I'm able to cook for myself. I'm able to have a friend over to eat. I'm able to get out in the community, go to church."

The 61-year-old Vietnam veteran said he fell on hard times five years ago, when failing health and quadruple bypass heart surgery left him unable to work and facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. He's off the streets now because of Maxwell House's federally funded Shelter Plus Care program, which provides housing for homeless adults with physical disabilities, mental health issues, substance abuse problems and AIDS.

Thirteen of the building's 216 efficiency and one-bedroom apartments are Shelter Plus units, and its owners want to add nine more. Maxwell House has requested $314,280 from U.S. Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Program, having been the only agency to step forward last summer when Augusta's Housing and Community Development Department sought a partner in reducing the city's destitute population.

The city submitted the HUD application Oct. 23. The same application is expected to yield $448,314 for Hope House, Goodwill Industries, CSRA Economic Opportunity Authority Inc. and a homeless tracking system for the city government, Community Development Manager Vicki Johnson said.

Ms. Johnson said she hopes to hear from HUD before the end of the year.

Maxwell House's Shelter Plus residents are mostly referred by Serenity Behavioral Health System, said Mackenzie Harkins, the director of Resource Development for CaringWorks Inc., a service provider at the building and an affiliate of its co-owner, Decatur, Ga.-based Progressive Redevelopment.

That was the case with Mr. Holland, who said Serenity got him on medications for bipolar disorder while he lived at Garden City Rescue Mission. He moved into Maxwell House about three months ago and is applying for Social Security benefits.

Along with providing counseling, 12-step programs, computer training and health care support, Maxwell House's staff tries to get Shelter Plus residents working or receiving disability benefits.

"The goal is to get them to be able to pay for their own housing," Assistant Property Manager Tami Scott said. "The goal is to get them receiving some type of income."

Mr. Holland said he's unable to work because he suffers from a lung disease that leaves him winded from simple tasks. Before his heart surgery he was a security guard in Myrtle Beach, S.C., but he didn't have health insurance. His wife left him, and he has lost contact with his daughter, who lives in Delaware, he said.

A police officer in Myrtle Beach steered him to Augusta, telling him the city had services to help homeless people get back on their feet, Mr. Holland said. Using a golf club for a cane, on Tuesday he went back to the canal bank where he used to sleep, under the Calhoun Expressway overpass near Sacred Heart Cultural Center.

He recalled waking up to raccoons licking his face, sleeping on the slope of an embankment so police couldn't see him and banding together with other homeless men his age, who would be bullied and robbed by younger men.

Mr. Holland said he was ashamed to be on the street, living among the kinds of men he used to hand change to.

He became emotional talking about the faceless people who have donated the clothes, food and furniture he has at Maxwell House. He said he tries to give back by volunteering as a cook at church functions.

"People don't choose to be a burden to society," he said. "I'm blessed. I'm really blessed."