An urgent call came through to the Street Outreach and Housing team from the Food Pantry. A deaf young man had come in, clearly needing help, but unable to communicate his needs.
As it happened, two team members were out on the road and swung by the pantry. They began communicating with the young man by writing notes, establishing he was experiencing homelessness and was in desperate need of help.
The team called PORT (Pasadena Outreach Response Team) for help. PORT was able to put them in touch with a social worker called Nate, who is fluent in ASL and who video-chatted with the young man to provide a translation.
It turned out that the young man had been thrown out of his house by his mother three days ago. The team called the mom to confirm, and discovered a highly dysfunctional family situation where the mom was refusing to have her son living with her any longer. In the meantime the young man had not slept for three days because he felt so scared and vulnerable.
There was just enough money in the motel budget to get shelter for the young man for two nights. As the one team took him to the motel, the other team members started making calls in hopes of fast-tracking him into transitional housing, where his disability might open up opportunities that might not otherwise exist. Fortunately they were right; the young man has been housed by Project Homekey in an ADA-compliant room. He will be provided with ongoing case management and will live there until he is permanently housed.