Four years ago Renee was in a terrible car accident. Her injuries landed her in the hospital in a coma and her three young children, all under 8, had to move in with her mother.

 

When Renee didn’t come out of the coma after a while, she could not pay the rent and all her things had to be moved into her mother’s apartment. She finally came out of the coma after three months, “it was actually really traumatic,” she said of the ordeal, “we’re just so thankful to be on the other side of that”. The family of four then lived in one room of Renee’s mother’s apartment for several months, but because the mother’s lease did not include Renee, her mother’s housing stability was jeopardized.

 

For a while they couch surfed, then stayed in motels while Renee tried to juggle working, taking care of her children, and finding housing of their own. Eventually they couldn’t afford motels anymore and fell into homelessness. The family was eventually able to secure a spot at a shelter where they stayed for over a year.

 

In 2021, their social worker at Housing Matters helped them find housing!

 

Q: What would you like the community to know about homelessness?

 

A: “It was really sad and really tough,” Renee told us, “it’s not easy being homeless, especially with kids. I felt like I had to do what I could to get a roof over our heads because my kids were my number one priority. If it weren’t for our social worker, it would have been so much harder. It really takes a village to raise a family!”

 

“Moving into this apartment seriously saved my life. It felt like winning the lottery for me, such a blessing. It feels so good to go home and be warm at night”