Success Stories

The Lara Family

Margie and Alex Lara and their four children were living what some might call the American Dream.

“We were just your average family,” says Alex of their happier days in Oroville. “We had a nice home with plenty of property. We were truly blessed, and seemed to be pretty comfortable. We definitely spent a lot of time together as a family.

“Then I lost my job. I’ll never forget that horrible day, when they called me into the HR office, and what I thought was a job I would retire from was now gone. I had to go home and tell my wife and children, ‘I got laid off.’ I felt angry this was happening – and scared at the same time. But I rested on my faith – I mean, we’ve all been through rough times, right?”

Margie, too, lost her job, and for four months they struggled to regain their footing. The couple applied for numerous jobs, worked with temp agencies and scaled down their lifestyle by moving into a smaller home. But the bills still kept piling up and they were forced to leave their home and move in with family members in Sacramento. They soon realized that the job market in Sacramento wasn’t any better than it was in Oroville, and with four kids they felt like a burden on their relatives, who were dealing with their own struggles. With no money and no family to stay with, they became homeless – sometimes living in their car, sometimes staying in a motel.

“Then one day, my wife was led to Francis House ,” said Alex. “There, we were able to speak to a caseworker, who tried to help us with some resources for shelter. But when I mentioned our family members’ ages, there seemed to be a problem: my 13-year-old son was too old to be able to enter some of the available family shelters. But there was no way we would split up.”

The worker then encouraged the family to call “211”, a local social-service referral line. “We were told about Volunteers of America’s Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program,” said Alex. “We were given our second chance.”

“The intake agent, Anthony, was great,” says Margie, “non-judgmental and willing to listen to our story. He made us feel comfortable, we were able to express ourselves, our situation, and our needs. We were blessed to find out that they could help us with our down payment, rent and utilities.”

The Lara’s case manager, Robert, continued to lead them on the road to recovery. “We meet with him frequently, working together on job leads, job openings and whatever might be available to get us back to work,” says Margie. “These services changed our unfortunate predicament around completely – we got our own place again and we are able to get up in the morning, get the kids off to school and look for work, without the added stress of worrying where we are going to sleep at night. We could once again have a nice home-cooked meal and eat together.”

“I often remember back when we were homeless in our car at night feeling helpless, and not knowing what to do,” adds Margie. “I remember looking in the back seat of the car watching my children cramped together as they slept. As I looked at them, I was wondering what they might be dreaming about. My first thought was, ‘I’m sure it’s them being in their own home in their own bed.’”

Today, the Laras’ children are stable at school, their grades are back up, they don’t have to lie to their friends about why their cell phones are disconnected, or the fact they can’t come over to hang out or play because they don’t have a home. Margie was particularly proud of this because her kids were able to still maintain their grades even though they were homeless. Margie now has a full-time job working at Thunder Valley Casino’s new resort and her husband Alex works at Goodwill. They are very happy and appreciate everything that everyone has done to help them get their life back.

“Without this program I don’t know what we would have done or where we would be today,” said Margie.

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William Schield

Bill Schield’s parents were alcoholics and he has struggled with drugs and alcohol since he was a teenager. His drug use caused him to lose his job and he ended up homeless, constantly moving his camp up and down the American River Parkway. Bill became sober while staying at the Aid-In-Kind Shelter. He then moved into his own room at Sacramento Self-Help Housing, a Permanent Supportive Housing program, and partner of the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. Bill remarks, “People were there for me, so I try to help others now.”

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The Browns

Six years ago, William Brown and his four young children lost their home and were living in their car. William was determined to provide a better life for his children, so he turned to Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center’s (SAEHC) Family Shelter for help. The Brown family was provided with more than a place to sleep; for 60 days they were given three meals a day, all toiletries, diapers and other essential items. A Case Manager and Housing Specialist helped the family access services and provided them with job and landlord referrals. On-site educational and recreational programs were provided for the children, including: tutoring, a computer lab and crafts.

When the Brown family left in 2002, they moved into a home of their own. The children are in school now, and the family is happy.

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Bernadette Williams

After Bernadette left her bad marriage, she was at-risk of becoming homeless with her two teenage children, Bryanna and Brandon. Bernadette knew she needed a safe place to regroup and create a new life for her family, so she began staying at St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children (SAEHC). She committed to succeeding step by step, and enrolled in many of St. John’s supportive programs.

Today she is living in an apartment at Saybrook, a permanent supportive housing program. She is completing computer training and will soon be able to support her family. She has volunteered at St. John’s computer room, enhancing both her own skills while teaching other clients. She says St. John’s helped give her the chance to create a path that will lead to a stable, secure and loving place for her family.

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Susie

Susie is 45 years old, and has cycled through periods of homelessness in her life. Susie lives with various chronic medical conditions, as well as a serious mental condition. All of these are exacerbated by her experiences being homeless. She has successfully enrolled in the T3 program, which addresses her medical and mental conditions. The T3 program is an innovative program that helps individuals—often chronically homeless—who utilize the E.R. for non-urgent care get linked to primary care and behavioral health services. It is a collaboration between Sutter Medical Center Sacramento and The Effort, Inc.

Susie was a great candidate for the program. In her short tenure in the T3 program, Susie has utilized The Effort’s medical clinic services, all of her conditions have been stabilized, and she has determined to maintain her connection with the clinic. With her mental health issues medically stable, she is also considering counseling and is receiving vocational support.

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Roxanna Jeppeson

Roxanna Jeppeson is 42 years old, and says “I’ve really been homeless since I was thirteen, I was a chronic runaway as a kid.” Roxanna had been camping under the 160 Freeway overpass near Richards Blvd. and had worked sporadically at the Loaves & Fishes dining room while on the streets. She’s had too many friends die on the streets and says, “I knew if I could get housing the rest of it would come.”

She has been housed for the past year and receives mental health treatment at the Pathways Program run by Turning Point Community Programs. She is thankful that Pathways, “kept me off the street, gave me therapy, the right diagnosis and the right medications.” She has also gone back to work as a part-time receptionist at Turning Point.

Her goals are to continue to work more hours, attend Sacramento City College to study computer and music, and to move into her own apartment. Roxanna shares a large single family home with six formerly homeless people who also suffer from serious mental conditions. She was placed into housing directly from the street as part of the “Housing First” approach, an element of Sacramento’s 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. In closing, she states, “This place gave me hope and that was as important as anything.”

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