Josh and Andrea came to Family Promise the first week of the new year. They had been moving around the area, living with family members, and mostly staying in hotels for over a year. Josh was and still is working a great full-time job with good pay and advancement opportunities. Andrea is currently a full-time mommy with three beautiful smiling girls. They had everything they needed to stabilize their family except a place to live in. It was not for a lack of trying as they had put in several applications every time an opportunity presented. Housing has not been abundant and competition is high. Sometimes a lower credit score or a lack of rental history can be the determining factor for a young family to find any type of housing. Other times they were simply late in applying as applications pour in immediately as a place becomes available.
The new year
brought a great new opportunity for this family. They were immediately accepted into our program. Working with a community partner we were able to provide emergency shelter in a hotel while we prepared volunteers to accept a new family. As fate would have it an apartment also became available with a company we have a strong relationship with. Josh had a payday around the corner, and with help from another community resource, they could sign a lease within five days. Moving quickly we were able to make sure this opportunity did not slip away.
Over the weekend we helped them move in their belongings and acquire a few things they still needed. Emotions were very high on moving day as they had waited so long for this moment and could hardly believe it all came together so quickly. They are now attending case management and building skills for the future. They now have a plan to own a home in the next two years. Working with them makes it easy to see that they are on track to do so now. All it took was a new start and a hand-up.