Transitioning someone into housing is never as simple as just handing them the keys – and the barriers our clients face are as varied as the people themselves. Here, we begin a new series of fictionalized accounts that illustrate some of the very real challenges our clients have to overcome in order to get a roof over their heads.
“Bella” was new to The Women’s Room. She told the TWR staff she had been living in her car for 18 months. She was working a remote job, but no matter how many hours she put in, it never seemed to be enough to do more than keep herself clothed and fed, the car running, and the cellphone data plan paid.
As time went on, Bella began to feel more comfortable at TWR. For the first time since she had begun experiencing homelessness she started to make friends, and she also began to open up to the TWR staff. The reason she’d left her last home, she confided, was because her ex-husband had been “using satellites to spy on her.” He hadn’t managed to find her since she’d been living on the streets, but she was living in fear.
Bella was clearly genuinely terrified, and if the staff showed signs of not believing her story, she might have become upset and left for good. But she clearly needed help. A TWR staff member gently suggested that Bella was showing signs of stress and depression, and asked if she would consider making an appointment with a mental health care professional. But Bella was not yet ready to hear this, and it took several more months of kind, consistent engagement before she gave her consent to a referral to a local mental health facility.
By this time, Bella had been referred to FID’s Street Outreach and Housing team, and they continued to follow up with her, making sure she was going to her appointments. As time went on, Bella began to look less stressed and less unkempt, and talked less and less often about spy satellites. At TWR, the staff also began to have conversations with her about the roots of her fear – her abusive ex-husband – and what she might do to protect herself once she had a new home.
With Bella’s mental health improving, the Street Outreach team could begin to work with her to collect the documents she would need to get into housing – her birth certificate, California ID, and Social Security Card. Since living in her car and experiencing several thefts, Bella had lost all of these documents. The most difficult to obtain was her birth certificate – Bella is a US citizen but was born overseas, and getting a copy of her birth certificate would mean spending several hours at the consulate. Terrified of losing a day’s pay, Bella was not prepared to do this until her Street Outreach case manager worked with her to draw up a budget which took into account her expenses and gave her enough of a financial cushion to take a day off.
Able, finally, to consider putting down roots in one place without living in fear, and now also being “document ready,” Bella could now be matched with a place in bridge housing. Once there, she will be given further support to continue changing her life, with the eventual goal of independent living.