Today we congratulate Mindy for ending her homeless situation and getting into a rental of her own. She is our first placement in 2018! We built a budget with her and after she found a rental that she could afford we were happy to pay her security deposit so she could move in. We will soon be providing her furniture so she can have a real home! Read her story below:

My name is Mindy, and I became homeless on August 6, 2017. My financial problems did not happen overnight. I broke and dislocated my right ankle in July 2015, which led to emergency surgery. I now have a metal plate and 8 screws in that ankle. After a 3 month recovery period, I returned to the workforce. As my son was grown and out of the home, my goal was to travel the United States working short-term assignments in the medical field. It took some time to sign with an agency, as I needed to get more experience in the medical field first. Thus, I temped locally from October 2015 until February 2017, when I signed with an agency and prepared to go on my first out of area placement in March 2017, which was in the Bay Area and scheduled to last 13 weeks. This assignment was cancelled the day before I was to leave for it, as happens sometimes. I then took a two month position locally covering a maternity leave. When this assignment ended, it was June 2017. I then got offered a six week position in the Bay Area, which I accepted but which fell through just prior to my leaving, similar to the first offer of this type. Then everything seemed to fall into place when I got another offer to go work in the Bay Area, this time for 13 weeks. I packed up the cat and drove up there, looking forward to the great pay and benefits which would allow me to pay my room rent in the Bay Area plus pay for my permanent place that I had down here. Unfortunately, this job fell through after only two days, and I came back to Southern California with the cat and no job. I applied for unemployment benefits, but was denied. I could only find sporadic work at that time, which was not enough to pay rent. I gave up my place and stayed with friends and in a motel for the first few nights. I then went to the first of 3 shelters. I had to flee the second shelter after being physically assaulted there. The third shelter provided me the support and safety I needed to get back on my feet and obtain a job which allows me to be self-sufficient again. Thus, after two months there, I am able to move into a place of my own again. -Mindy

Mindy is our 1st placement in 2018 and our 511th placement since we started OTS-HB in 2014. Read about our Campaign To House 1000 Homeless By 2020.