Good days

This week is Homelessness Awareness week, and yesterday was the day of Project Homeless Connect. Several organizations came together to put on a one day event which provided people with sort of a one stop shop for many services. Haircuts (by far the most popular!), clothes, food, legal services, child services, bike repair, etc. At the Salcido, we conducted surveys all day to get a point in time picture of homelessness in Missoula.

My favorite part of the day was one fellow of ours finally got into housing. After months on the housing voucher waiting list, Missoula Housing Authority had found and apartment for him. The lease was signed, his electricity was turned on, but before they would give him the keys to the apartment, he had to pay $41 for renter's insurance. I'm not sure if he is on any supplemental insurance, but even if that was the case, pay day would be a week away. He came to us asking if we could help him with the money, but we have no funds for that. We sent him to the Poverello, who sent him to the case worker at Partnership Health Center, who was out of town. So they sent him to Project Homeless Connect. To make a long story short, he ended up running into the mayor who simply offered to pay the $41!

I can't tell you how excited he was. He was practically jumping up and down. Unfortunately, this was finalized at 4:45 yesterday and he didn't have time to get to the rental office to pay and get into his apartment that night. Today, reality was sinking in a little more. Ironically, although he has renter's insurance, he owns nothing to insure. Not a bed, not a chair, not even a roll of toilet paper.

It's a long road from homeless to self sufficient, and there are many steps along the way.