Monday, June 27, 2016

Monday at Arise

Folks, we could use some food-- simple things, crackers, cans of soup, juice-- because we've had a lot of homeless kids in our office the past couple of weeks and sometimes their families are just out of money.  And it is just impossible to eat food in front of hungry people unless you have enough to share.

One family today spent several days with us last week, also.  We get to be headquarters, so they can make calls without having to use up their cellphone minutes, look apartment leads up on the computer, and, of course, bring each new piece of information about their shelter eligibility to  us so we can figure out what it means and what to do next, if there is a next thing that can be done.

A father and his three children came in with a DHCD denial letter,  and I think we can fix this one pretty easily-- DHCD thinks it was an illegal sublet (which would make them ineligible if the primary tenant gets evicted) but no, he actually paid his rent to his friend's mother, who was the owner of the house.  So he needs to get a letter from his friend's mother, not his friend.  (Maybe if DHCD weren't so busy, they could spend more time exploring how a family could become eligible.) The bank took the house in April, and the family has been bouncing ever since.  He works third shift, so the kids get to sleep at their babysitters.

"And when do you sleep?" I asked him.

"I stay where I'm working and catch a couple of hours when my shift is done," he said.  The rest of the time, with school out, the kids are with him all the time.

The family who has spent the most time with us recently has a complicated story, too long and too revealing to tell, so you'll just have to take my word that the main cause of their homelessness is racism.

Marion at Community Legal Aid has offered to do another training for us in the Emergency Assistance regulations to we can train more people, and we're going to take her up on it.  Let us know if you'd like to be involved.

Meanwhile, organizers are organizing, Jackie, as volunteer coordinator, is getting the kids to help fold brochures, and the phone is ringing, ringing.

We need a bigger place.



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