50. Form A Transitional Housing Program
Until Jeanette Veldhouse-Seller's twenty-two-year marriage ended in divorce, she never imagined that her middle-class family would ever be on the verge of homelessness. How did it happen? Her husband walked out of their Minneapolis home, leaving her with two children, thirteen and eighteen. He promptly lost his job, which meant that alimony and child support ceased.
Jeanette, who has a degree in child psychology, lost her well-paying position as director of a learning center. The best work she could find was at $5 an hour.
Once she exhausted her meager savings, she fell behind in her mortgage payments even with help from her mother. She was within ten days of eviction when she sought help from the Elin Transitional Housing program. It put her in touch with the county assistance office, which provided her with a security deposit for an apartment. Elim covered part of the first six month's rent. The program also directed her to food banks for groceries, a medical clinic, and a fuel assistance agency that helped with oil bills.
Jeanette--who was within days of being homeless--is today the administrator of a youth program. "You think of the stereotypical homeless person as someone of low income who doesn't have an education and who's probably anti-social," Jeanette says. "But we're a middle-class American family. Without Elim's help, we'd have had to live on the streets."
List of all 54 Ways
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54 Ways You Can Help The Homeless - Overview