Home at the West
In December 2012, a mother of a teenage son came to us fleeing a long term domestic violence situation where she had faced severe emotional and physical abuse, lost her housing, her employment, severed connections with her family, and neglected her medical needs. The mom quickly settled in and started working towards her goals which included tenant education classes, financial empowerment services, access to medical care for her HIV positive status, supporting her soon in middle school, employment assistance, and addressing past housing barriers.
This mother was deemed chronically homeless according to the HUD definition and was accepted into our Women’s Housing Collaborative program which will provide up to a year subsidy. With the advocacy of West staff and staff from CAP she was able to pay down some of her past housing related debt and also completed our tenant education Rent Well classes. With persistence and tenacity she was able to appeal to a landlord who was willing to rent and believed in her ability to make a change in her life and she is currently preparing to move in the next few weeks.
There were many times when this mom wanted to give up because she continued to face denials and rejection in her search for housing but with the continued support of staff from the West and her own self-determination she never surrendered and was able to succeed. We look forward to continuing to provide weekly case management, rental assistance, domestic violence support, and employment assistance to prepare her to be self-sufficient and without rental subsidy after a year in the program. She is healthy and happy that her and her son will be settled and prepared for start of high school next fall.