It won’t happen to me, becoming unhoused. How many times have I heard this and I am sure many of you are thinking the same thing either not going to happen to you or
Due to the housing stock, greed of people need to make extra, extra money and the lack structure our local government is doing about it.. these could be a few reasons.
Then there are people who really are mentally challenged who are just creating havoc in the streets.
Guess what it can happen to anyone – you have a house fire, you lose everything..Do you have a plan if this happens?
You got evicted by choice or not where are you going to go? Have you researched what is available if it should ever happen to you? To rent an apartment/house you need to be making 3x of the rent they are charging. ie. $1.300 3x = $4,000 / month is what you should be making.
Have you asked the people that are unhoused, how they became unhoused? What’s their story, have you cared enough to ask? Besides saying “It won’t happen to me”
Do you know of someone who became unhoused were you able to help them?
I have friends who say “What can I do about it?” or they’ll say “It’s their fault” or this is a classic, “You aren’t doing enough for yourself, or moving ahead to find a place to live, so you can’t come over to my house anymore. But, we still can be friends. What the hell! No, I don’t think so.
or they’ll say as a church “What can we do about the situation, we are just a small church?” If you want to help ask!
Dave one of my parking buddies was saying he was in shock for about 3 weeks that he found himself sleeping in his car, due to circumstances beyond his control. Even though he was working, he wasn’t making enough money to get another place to live.
Many people ask him “How do you do it?”
He just tells people go sleep in your car for a few nights, you don’t have to leave the driveway. you just can’t run in the house and get extra stuff.. food, blankets or if you forgot something or you want to watch TV. Just stay in your car for a few days. If you work, still go – eat out, come back to your house park on the driveway.
It’s a process everyone learns as you go along. You can ask for help. You will eventually learn you won’t be saying “It won’t happen to me.” or you will start to prepare yourself for emergencies.
I was so excited to be on another wait list for an apartment.. here are the requirements:
- Government issued photo ID
- Social Security numbers
- Your most recent and consistent pay stubs equivalent to 3 months if you receive a W-2. NOTE: If you are paid weekly, you would bring 13 paystubs, bi-weekly 7 paystubs, semi-monthly 6 paystubs, and monthly 3 paystubs. It is very important that there are no missing paystubs in the period which you are providing.
- If you are self-employed, a copy of your tax return from the most recent tax year in its entirety.
- If you are receiving Social Security or SSI, please bring a copy of your COMPLETE award letter, omitting no pages from the document. We are unable to use the award letter which is sent to you at the start of the calendar year, which will come as a perforated accordion-type document. You will need to print or have printed a letter size, sheet-type award letter which is dated within the last 90 days in order to be usable for this process.
- Proof of any additional sources of regular income you are receiving including, but not limited to pension distributions, VA benefits, child support, and alimony payments.
- Your current balances and the last 4 digits of the account number for all of your bank accounts and financial institutions, including but not limited to Checking Accounts, Savings Accounts, Money Market Accounts, Certificates of Deposit, all types of retirement funds, and life insurance policies which have an accrued value which could be used by you.
- If you have recently sold property, we will need to see the sales agreement or a recent appraisal of the home at the time of the sale or transfer of ownership.
- A cashier’s check or money order for your application fees. This amount is $35 per adult applicant.
This is just to get an apartment. So, for those who have a place hang onto it.. unless you are upgrading.
I want to get a long table, bring people together for a dinner.. open up conversations. Who is in? We all want to belong to our community. Build a long table instead of a wall, of us VS them.
Like this https://theecologycenter.org/community-table/
Until next time, Be curious