For weeks after his brother’s suicide in January, Jamaal Morgain barely ate. He refused to — he wanted to waste away, to spiral back into the dark pit of depression he’d known all too well through a lifetime of homelessness, crime and addiction.

Luckily for him, someone refused to ignore the warning signs. A counselor at La Familia finally needled an answer out of the 31-year-old Pittsburg native as to why he looked so frail.

The breakthrough that came next was nothing new at the East Bay nonprofit, which has spent decades working to help impoverished, at-risk and recently incarcerated residents improve their mental health. And for Morgain, it meant finally confronting the demons that had been building over a lifetime.

Along with the anger management group counseling sessions to help him cope with his brother’s death, the nonprofit helped connect him with three jobs over the last year, most notably as an Amazon delivery driver.

“It was like a rallying cry,” Morgain said. “I felt like I don’t have to do this alone.”

La Famila was founded in 1975 by community members in Oakland and Hayward to provide help for people with developmental disabilities, as well as bilingual mental health care for the Latino community. The nonprofit expanded its footprint in 2014 by adding a youth workforce development program. It now offers substance abuse treatment and a housing program.

“Right now, more than ever, you see community members that have multiple needs — whether it’s behavioral health, whether it’s food insecurity, whether it’s homelessness,” said Aaron Ortiz, the nonprofit’s CEO. “It’s in front of us — all day, every day.”

La Familia helped Morgain find a room with a sobriety house in East Oakland — allowing him to move out of his 15-year-old BMW 328i sedan. On that first night indoors, he locked his legs straight. And he wept.

“I cried for a couple hours — I was just like damn, this feels good,” Morgain said. “My bones aren’t aching from scrunching up in a car. I had peace of mind.”