Today we congratulate Jason for ending his homeless situation. After Jason qualified for our services, we built a budget with him, and after he found a rental that he could afford based on this budget, we were happy help him with the security deposit so he could move in. He told us yesterday that he literally only has a few blankets, so we will soon be providing him all the essential household items and furniture he needs to make his rental into a real home.

“My name is Jason and I went homeless in 2011. I was working but not being paid enough to pay my rent. In addition, I was drinking and using and was battling undiagnosed schizoaffective. It was in July and I lost my job a couple months after because they knew I was homeless. I stayed homeless in Costa Mesa until March 2014. In the meantime, I lost my family, my son, and everything I had and loved. I lost all my material things and all my writings. I did meet a beautiful girl in 2012 and fell in love. We were homeless together in Costa Mesa. She got pregnant and had our son in April of 2014. I was in jail for a resisting arrest charge I received. I smoked a lot of pot and drank occasionally on the street. When I got out of jail I was homeless again but she came to see me every day with the baby and we moved into a room in Buena Park in June of 2014. We were there until December 2014. I was having a hard time with my mental health issues and went to the mental hospital. When we moved we went to a motel in Santa Ana and stayed there until March 2015. We broke up. I was so stressed out about rent every week and started drinking and using again. Plus I was hearing voices and my mental health was a real issue. It scared her off and she moved up to San Francisco. I went into Sober living in Costa Mesa and managed to stay there until December of 2015 working odd jobs and barely getting by. I ran out of work in December and could not pay my rent so I went homeless again. My mental health got so bad that I checked myself into College Hospital in February or March of 2016 and they put me on Zyprexa. The medicine helped with my psychosis and I have been on the medicine ever since. Joining the PACT program through Orange County Mental Health Services has saved my life. I got into the Hope House in July of 2016 and from there moved to the Friendship Shelter in Laguna. I have been there for a year now and am actively looking for housing. I have a voucher through OC mental health called the Shelter Plus Care voucher and am trying my hardest to find a place. I have a lot of support at the Friendship Shelter and OC Mental Health. I’m also looking into the Wellness Center and REI in Orange. So that is where I am today. Sober and trying to stay off the streets forever. I really need to find a place so all this hard work is not all for naught. I don’t want to be homeless ever again.”
-Thanks, Jason

Jason brings our total placements this year to 171 and our grand total since we started in 2014 up to 481. Please read about our Campaign To House 1000 Homeless By 2020