Member Story: Debra

This month, we hear from long term member and San Jose resident, Debra, about the importance of preventing and solving homelessness.

Hi, I'm Debra. I have lived in San Jose for 25 years.

Over the years, I was a stay at home mom, I was a licensed preschool owner, a parent volunteer at my children's schools, a parent education facilitator, a Court Appointed Special Advocate, a foster parent, and a good neighbor. My degree is in Early Childhood Education.

Several life events in a short amount of time contributed to our homelessness. The long story short includes domestic violence, divorce, a car accident, and my own injury and illness while caring for an ill and injured child. We are both immune compromised.

My son and I moved from home ownership to a hotel, then to a couple of different rentals as we downsized while my savings dwindled. I applied for disability but it was denied and delayed over the course of years. We had lived in various homeless situations over the course of 5 years.  I was about to lose my driver's license due to vision loss when my son and I were housed in permanent supportive housing.

My son and I want to thank you and our community. We are so very grateful.

I had applied with several housing lists, but none of them panned out. It was not until I began working with PATH who had a DIRECT STRATEGY to housing, that I had success in finding housing.

My son and I now share a 250 square ft permanent supportive housing  studio in downtown San Jose. We have lived there for over 2 years.

My son and I were experiencing great difficulty with our property manager and some residents over COVID protocol. We had different values when it came to mask mandates. I had to seek help from my doctors and legal counsel just to communicate with staff about our right to safety.

When my case manager left her job,  she introduced me to someone from Survivors of the Street.

I found that others in the group have or are currently experiencing the same delays with access to housing or resources and are in horrible  situations that are not getting resolved.

In my building alone, there have  been fires, vandalism, theft,  guns drawn, knife fights, domestic violence, threats and attacks  on the disabled, and grievances that are going unresolved.

Problems being reported in other living situations are even worse.

Many communities don't want Affordable Housing or Permanent Supportive Housing in their neighborhoods because they fear these exact problems. Many of the unhoused and formerly unhoused do not want it this way either.

I believe that people with lived experience can help with the multi-dimensional and problematic challenge of solving and preventing  homelessness...if those who are working on housing the homeless will include us in being an influential part of the solution.

Thank you.