Gail
Recently,
Gail became a homeowner. She moved into a two-bedroom house in
East Durham
, made available through Durham Housing Authority’s Turnkey
Program.
“It
had always been a dream of mine,” she said.
Five
years ago, that dream seemed like it would never come true.
Gail
was homeless and suffered from a mental illness. Her caseworker at
the time brought her to the newly-opened Andover Apartments,
Housing for
New Hope
’s permanent supportive housing for homeless with disabling
conditions.
Gail
remembers her first visit to
Andover
well. “It was wintertime. All I had was a garbage bag full of
summer clothes. That’s it.”
Anticipating
the limited resources of its tenants, apartments at
Andover
come fully furnished and equipped with many necessary housewares.
That helped Gail a lot.
What
also helped were the below market rent and links to supportive
services.
Rent
at
Andover
is thirty percent of tenants’ income. Gail paid $297 a month,
which included utility bills.
Her
mental health provider offered, among other things, budgeting
classes, “which were very helpful. I dedicated myself to saving
money, and it paid off.”
While
at
Andover
, Gail was able to obtain employment, a car, and a bank account.
Over
the course of the four-plus years at
Andover
, Gail’s mental health also improved considerably, to the point
where now she has no need for ongoing case management by her
provider.
Moving
out of
Andover
“has been sweet and sour,” says Gail. She loves having her own
home. But she misses the community at
Andover
. Her best friend still lives there, and she goes back frequently
to visit.
“Living
at
Andover
was a great experience. I wouldn’t be where I am today without
it.”
------------
Michael
This
year, Michael moved out of Housing for
New Hope
’s Andover Apartments, where he lived for more than three years,
and into his own home, through Habitat for Humanity of Durham.
Michael shared a few thoughts about his recent experience.
“There
is no good way to explain how I feel about my new Habitat home. I
could use words like excited, happy, overjoyed, even exhilarated,
but that just wouldn’t cut it. Mary Poppins said
Supercalifradgilisticespialadocious, and that might be close.
Everyone
has been so supportive of me and my efforts over the past few
years. It seems like yesterday I was sitting in the woods praying
and asking God what was going to happen next.
Housing
for
New Hope
would visit and bring me stuff in my “house” in the woods.
Today, they are telling me they want to help decorate my new
Habitat home.
I
just feel overwhelmed by the fact that in less than three and a
half years, with the help of Housing for
New Hope
, I have gone all the way from living in the woods to being a
homeowner. That is something that I could not do in the first
fifty years of my life by myself with my old ways of thinking.
I
have made many friends along the journey, and each time I have
made my own little sense of community. I have mixed feelings about
leaving Andover Apartments and the people there, but I know I am
opening up a space there for the next person to come in. That
means one more person getting an affordable, supportive place to
live.
When
I left the woods, I was afraid to leave my homeless friends. I
have learned that the truth was that I was afraid of being alone
myself because I was used to having a family and the homeless
community was the only family I had.
I
left a community behind at
Andover
, too. But I can go back to visit. And I have learned that as I
recover my life and take it up to the next level, that, in turn,
opens up another spot on the bottom level for someone else to
enter into the recovery process, and life gets better for
everyone.”
