Posted on August 31, 2010
I have asked Alison Jones-Nassar, VSH’s volunteer program coordinator, to write this week’s blog. Thanks, Alice
Reading an article in this weekend’s Daily Press reminded me of the response I always get whenever I tell someone I work with Virginia Supportive Housing. The circumstances may differ and the details might change slightly, but it’s always a variation on the same theme.
The article, entitled “Mom, Family Escape Homelessness,” describes the efforts of a young Newport News woman, Suzanne Richardson, to overcome a mountain of obstacles in order to avoid a housing crisis and maintain a safe home for her mother, brother, and two young children, Anais (5) and Jamere (1).
Some of the obstacles Suzanne has encountered are the results of mistakes made, starting with her own decision to drop out of high school and her first pregnancy as a teenager. Others are through no fault of her own. Her mother is on disability. The home they were renting went into foreclosure.
Despite some bad judgments, Suzanne has made every attempt to rectify her mistakes for the sake of her family by following the rules. She achieved her GED, went back to college to become a certified massage therapist, and graduated with honors. She found a job and received high recommendations from her supervisor and co-workers.
But in the face of foreclosure, her minimum-wage job could not cover the cost of the security deposit and first month’s rent for a new place. She didn’t have enough money to pay the electricity bills or put food on the table. And then her car broke down.
Combined, the obstacles Suzanne has faced would be enough to overwhelm anyone – and yet she keeps persevering. “I just thought, ‘I’ve got to keep moving. I’ve got to try my best.” She has jumped through all the required hoops, working hard and never asking for favors or special treatment. But somehow, it’s never quite enough.
Whenever I tell someone I work with VSH, this is the story I hear again and again. A brother, a daughter, a friend, a neighbor, someone from the congregation. A lost job, an abusive parent, a divorce, a car breakdown, a medical emergency, an emotional crisis. There are so many stories out there, so many people who are struggling so hard. Some of them, like Suzanne, are barely managing to hold on by the skin of their teeth. Many others are not.
I often wonder how I would cope in a situation like that. If I was in Suzanne’s place, would I have the resilience to keep going? To keep following the rules? To smile for my kids and believe in a happy ending? My work with Virginia Supportive Housing allows me to be a part of an organization that makes a real difference in the lives of people like Suzanne. By getting the community involved in what we do, I help to increase awareness of all those stories out there and mobilize the resources required to help. The good news is that VSH makes happy endings possible. Are you ready to find out more about how you can give someone’s story a happy ending?
Posted on August 25, 2010
It has been almost four weeks since Joe Brightful moved from South Richmond, his home for 14 years, to his new apartment in downtown Richmond. Recently we dropped by to visit Joe and see how he’s doing. It was an overcast afternoon, and the apartment was dim and cool. The ceiling fan rotated overhead, and the TV flickered at low volume. “I love to watch my soaps!” Joe grinned as he let us in.
A couple of boxes sat waiting to be unpacked, but otherwise the apartment looked well-ordered. Lists of phone numbers, bills, medical documents, and prescriptions were organized in a neat line along the kitchen counter, awaiting Joe’s attention. He had spent a lot of time on the phone with the VA Hospital that morning getting his medications straight. “I can’t do without my medications,” he explained. At one time, he had been on fourteen different prescriptions, but over the years that’s been cut down to less than half. “Being at South Richmond helped me to get [my medical conditions] straight.”
Now 56, Joe leaned back on his sofa with a big smile on his thin face and let out a sigh of contentment. “I love this place so much. I love just being able to relax in my own place with my music and my TV. It’s so quiet and peaceful. And it’s a good location, easy for me to get around when I need to. But sometimes I just don’t want to do anything but stay home and relax.”
Joe’s life was not always so peaceful or stable. At the age of 16, he enlisted in the army and served for six and a half years, including two years in Japan. Upon discharge, he says he travelled all across the U.S., visiting friends from the military and seeing the sights from his native Philadelphia to far-flung Alaska and Hawaii and everywhere in between. Eventually he settled in San Antonio, married, bought land, and planted an orchard with more than 500 peach trees.
Joe’s divorce and alimony settlement four years later was the beginning of the end for him, resulting in the loss of his land, home, health, belongings….and perhaps the most precious thing of all: his daughter, who was three at the time of the divorce. Once she got older, she spent years trying to contact her father, unaware that he had become homeless. Joe’s homelessness exacerbated his many medical conditions, and he says he was even declared clinically dead at one point after a catastrophic asthma attack.
In 1996, after spending four years in and out of shelters, hospitals, and soup kitchens, Joe was accepted at Virginia Supportive Housing’s newly opened property at South Richmond, and he slowly began to turn his life around. He made friends with Eugene, another tenant with very similar experiences, and “we went everywhere together.” In fact, when Joe finally made contact with his daughter and arranged to fly to Texas to reunite with her in 2006, Eugene accompanied him.
Joe’s medical battles culminated with a cancer diagnosis in 2008. Fortunately, surgeons were able to remove the large tumor, and Joe has been declared cancer-free ever since. His friend, Eugene, however, passed away last year from medical complications.
As Joe discussed the details of his eventful life, there was a soft knock at the door and his friend and neighbor Deborah* appeared. Deborah was also at South Richmond for more than a decade, and she says she is so thankful to have Joe’s companionship as she settles into her new living situation. “This move has done a lot for me, emotionally. I feel like I am finally home.”
Joe is now the proud grandfather of two little girls, Legacy and Trinity. His eyes twinkle with delight as he describes the feeling of joy these little girls give him, a feeling that was absent in his life for so many years, and then he pauses in an attempt to sum up his thoughts about everything he has been through. “Legacy and Trinity, that says it all…these are the gifts life has given to me, and I am so grateful for every single thing.”
These are the Stories of Hope made possible by Virginia Supportive Housing. Many thanks to the staff members, volunteers, and community supporters who worked together to give Joe’s story a happy ending!
*Not her real name
Posted on August 17, 2010
I have asked Cristina Wood, one of VSH’s fall communications internship candidates, to write this week’s blog on her experiences volunteering at a homeless shelter in Northern Virginia.
I walked in the front door of the shelter like I had been doing every Thursday for the past several months. After waving to Celeste at the front desk, I proceeded upstairs to find the usual children playing with toys or being read to by other volunteers. I scanned the room for Ashley’s big eyes and long brown hair, and listened for her infectious laugh, but she was nowhere to be found. Peeking into the room next door where the children’s mothers were savoring their time to themselves, I was surprised not to be greeted with a mouthful of Spanish from Ashley’s mom that I could never understand, but always appreciated.
I walked back downstairs to Celeste. “Where’s Ashley?” I asked. “Oh, didn’t anyone tell you?” Celeste said with a confused look. “Ashley and her mother have been relocated.” I stared at Celeste speechless for a moment before questions began falling from my mouth. “Relocated? Why? She was here last week! Where is she?” “We can’t give that information out,” Celeste said and instructed me to go back upstairs to help the other children.
Since I began tutoring at this shelter, I had been assigned to Ashley and was able to witness her progress every week. Her English was getting better and her grades in school were improving dramatically. I looked forward to seeing her every week and helping her with her English and math homework. Her mother assured me Ashley loved my visits as well, but suddenly they were both gone forever.
It was then that I began to realize how strenuous it is to live in temporary shelter, where the only constant in your life is change. Ashley was only in second grade, and her mother spoke no English. I was devastated that Ashley had left and I wasn’t even the one that had to deal with the hardships of moving, possibly changing schools, and getting accustomed to a whole new environment. I could only imagine how difficult it was for Ashley and her mom.
Stability is a precious thing in life. Knowing that you have a home, family, or friends to keep you grounded is invaluable and should never be taken for granted. Providing people who are experiencing homelessness with a permanent place to live allows them to work towards getting their lives back on track without worrying where they will sleep next week. It is truly a wonderful thing and this sense of stability has been proven hugely successful through the efforts of Virginia Supportive Housing. I never saw Ashley again, but I hope that she is safe and, if she hasn’t already, that she will find a permanent home which can provide the foundation for her to build the rest of her life.
Posted on August 11, 2010
Although homelessness is not a frequent topic in the news, its shadow haunts many of our headlines.
On any given day, it is unusual to see even one brief mention of homelessness in the local news. In today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, for example, the most popular articles focused on Ted Stevens, pop tarts, sex abuse, and high-speed chases. A targeted search using “homeless” as the key phrase comes up empty.
On NBC 12, the top headlines feature Amtrak discounts, the opening of Richmond’s first charter school, and the investigation results of a deadly police standoff. Again, a key phrase search comes up empty.
Items about homelessness are slightly more frequent in the South Hampton Roads area. Yesterday, on Wavy.com (the news channel serving that area), there was one item about the approved installation of “donation meters” along the Virginia Beach board walk, a measure designed to address the issue of panhandling.
A Google search of top national news items results in the tirade of the JetBlue flight attendant, Ted Stevens, flooding in China & Pakistan, and the trade deficit. If you narrow the search, only two items come up for today’s date; one about homeless camps “sprouting like mushrooms” in Santa Cruz, and the other about the death of a proposal to build a large housing complex for the homeless in the Dallas area. This summarizes the number of items appearing across the national radar.
Even more comprehensive national news outlets such as NPR only infrequently mention the issue of homelessness, and it is often buried under other “more timely” issues. For example, on the day that the federal homeless plan was released (June 22), it was necessary to wade through fourteen other articles covering topics such as cleaning oiled birds, the guilty plea of the New York car bomb suspect, and the Rolling Stone article about General McChrystal before locating the announcement by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
It’s no wonder that people experiencing homelessness are frequently referred to as “invisible.” Their daily struggles are not newsworthy, and very often, when they do appear in the news, the reports have an unpleasant connotation that seems to support the overall perception that “the homeless” are dangerous drug-addicted mentally ill criminals who are too lazy to work and feed off services supported by tax payer dollars.
On the other hand, multiple items appear in the local and national news every single day regarding subjects such as unemployment rates, unemployment benefits, job creation, underemployment, home foreclosures, affordable housing, health care accessibility, disability & mental health coverage, budget cuts for social services, quality of education, access to education, the cost of college tuition, etc.
Although homelessness is not the explicit focus in any of these headlines, its shadow lurks on the edges of all these issues in a conspicuous but unspoken way, because these factors, especially when combined all at one time, play a critical role in the housing crises of both individuals and families.
And ultimately, we care about unemployment, health care, and affordable housing because of the specter of widespread homelessness that hangs over all these issues, threatening the very foundations of our society.
So the next time you pick up the paper and read the latest news regarding foreclosures, unemployment rates, or health care legislation, remember that, whether we acknowledge it or not, housing as a fundamental human right is at the core of every headline.
Posted on August 3, 2010
On July 26th, there was a celebration at the White House to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the passing of the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA), which for the first time protected the rights of people with physical and mental disabilities, and prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, public services and public accommodations
For those of you who don’t know, I am legally blind. While I don’t consider myself disabled in the full sense of the word, I can get accommodations under the ADA. However, since my handicap is physical it does not have nearly the stigma as mental illness.
As a matter of fact, I would venture to guess that many people don’t know that people with mental illness are covered under the ADA. Working at Virginia Supportive Housing has taught me that people with mental illness are discriminated against in housing and employment more often than physically disabled people and many times their disability is far more debilitating. People with serious mental illness often become homeless because of their disability and have a very difficult time getting into and staying in permanent housing. It is estimated that nationally 20 to 25% of individuals experiencing homelessness have a serous mental illness.
At VSH, we are successful at helping people with mental illness obtain and maintain permanent housing because of the clinical nature of the services we provide. We have seen many people whose lives have been transformed through patient and consistent services that are available to them, in some cases 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Last week, I was especially heartened to see that Nathanial Ayers performed in front of President Obama at the commemoration of the ADA. I was glad to see that Mr. Ayers was still doing well. Mr. Ayers is a musician who was homeless for many years due to his mental illness. He was befriended by Steve Lopez, a journalist with the Los Angeles Times who wrote a book, The Soloist, that eventually became a movie. Mr. Lopez and a nonprofit supportive housing provider took the time to work with Mr. Ayers and get him into permanent housing where he is living with his disability with respect and dignity. Another success story!
But there are still a lot of people out there who are disabled due to mental illness who still need compassion, respect and a place to live. I hope all of us continue to work hard to make sure that persons with mental illness are afforded the same opportunities and rights that Mr. Ayers received so that in 20 years when we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the ADA there are many more success stories.
