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| Bell One |
Last month, Bell One and Calvary Church in Bellflower committed $100,000 ($10K from Calvary and $90K from BellOne) in bridge funding to ensure that our homeless prevention work can continue despite funding complications for our grant from the State of California. This past month, their investment helped us to keep 17 families from
becoming homeless and helped move 8 families into housing from the streets.
Here are the stories of a few of those families:
C.B. – Lakewood Neighbor
The
client is 8 months pregnant and her husband has been incarcerated for last 6
months. She is a single mother of 2 and soon to be 3. She is
part-time employed and receiving government assistance for her children.
The client
called at the beginning of October and explained that she was homeless and had
spent a night out on the streets with her children. Her mother took her
in for a few weeks until the landlord took notice of the overcrowded unit and
warned the client’s mother that she was breaching the lease by having more
people than indicated on the lease living in the unit. The property
manager threatened to evict the client’s mother if she didn’t move out.
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| Calvary Church |
With the
help of our program, and the churches' investment, she and her children were able
to find a unit that she could afford. With her limited income, she didn’t have
enough for the move in costs so the program provided the family with the move
in assistance and now she and her 2 children are housed in a sustainable environment.
Case Managers are currently working with her to budget for when she has the
baby and to help her sustain her place until she is ready to go back to
work. We are estimating this neighbor will need help for about 2-3
months.
O.T. –
Lakewood Neighbor
The client
is currently caring for her two siblings. She is working full-time at a
phone store and is not earning enough of an income to fully sustain herself and
her siblings. When she enrolled in the program, she had gotten behind on
her rent and was on the verge of becoming homeless. The program has helped her for 3 months and during that
time, she found employment that provided higher pay and now her household is
sustainable. She requires no more financial assistance.
K.P –
Bellflower Neighbor
Thanks to
the help from the churches', the homeless prevention program was able to assist a
homeless woman with a home to call her own. This woman became homeless when she
was kicked out of her prior residence due to the inability to pay her rent. She
was homeless in Bellflower for the past seven months sleeping in her car and
showering at friend’s houses when available. Although she works full-time, she
was not able to save enough funds to afford the move-in costs for an apartment.
With the efforts of both the churches and the homeless prevention program, we were
able to house this woman in an apartment in Bellflower. The total move-in costs
Security Deposit and first month’s rent came to $1,875. Without the churches’ investment the program would not have been able to finically assist with this
woman’s situation. She is now able to have a place to shower, prepare meals and
most importantly she mentioned a place to lay her head at night.
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