A Place To Call Home
The seeds of change are found in everyday experience. The stories of people who live in supportive housing can shed light on important issues, such as what it is like to experience homelessness or live with mental illness or a disability. Because of this, during 2019, the Supportive Housing Providers Association (SHPA) and Housing Action Illinois partnered to bring a series of five workshops to help residents of permanent supportive housing explore telling stories to make a difference. The stories in this publication grew out of the workshops, and we are grateful to everyone whose experiences are shared in these pages. Together, we can build a more understanding, compassionate world. Our thanks to the Illinois Charitable Trust Stabilization Fund for making this collaboration possible.
The seeds of change are found in everyday experience. The stories of people who live in supportive housing can shed light on important issues, such as what it is like to experience homelessness or live with mental illness or a disability. Because of this, during 2019, the Supportive Housing Providers Association (SHPA) and Housing Action Illinois partnered to bring a series of five workshops to help residents of permanent supportive housing explore telling stories to make a difference. The stories in this publication grew out of the workshops, and we are grateful to everyone whose experiences are shared in these pages. Together, we can build a more understanding, compassionate world.
Our thanks to the Illinois Charitable Trust Stabilization Fund for making this collaboration possible.
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TAJ
Hillside workshop
I’ve been homeless since I was a
sophomore in high school. My mother
and I did not always have the best
relationship. So when she asked me to
leave her home when I was a sophomore, it drove me to want to prove
her wrong, that she didn’t have control over my life, and I wasn’t going to
allow her to have control over my life anymore.
I put myself through high school. I was working. I got myself down to
two classes my senior year so I had time to work. Once I graduated, I left
my tickets at the box for my mother if she wanted to come. And—she
came! She brought my little sister and my older brother, he was in the
military and then was out. He surprised me, and I cried when I saw him.
After I graduated, I tried to reconnect with my mother, and it didn’t work
out. It just made things worse. I moved to Tennessee and I tried to start
my life over. I was in school while I was down there, I was working a fulltime
job, and I was making it happen. I thought that if I tried to work
with her some more, there would be this relationship. And it just didn’t
work out. It still just didn’t work out. I keep praying on it, I keep asking, I
keep trying to make it work.
Then I got into a car accident and my life crumbled around me. I lost
my job. Once I lost my job, I couldn’t go to school anymore, because I
couldn’t pay to get back and forth. And then I lost my apartment. Once I
lost my apartment, I put myself in a position where I was doing things to
make ends meet for myself. I tried to come back to Indianapolis to make
up with my mother. It was Mother’s Day. She sat down and met with me,
and she told me that a woman is always supposed to do for herself, she
shouldn’t need for someone else to be there for her.
So I came here. I came here looking for my father’s side of the family, and
I was introduced to the Emergence Program. Through them, I was able
to find some of my relatives, and things started looking up. I was able to
find some of my relatives, who I now stay with.
I will be going back to school this coming fall. I’m going to make it happen.
44
“I will be going back
to school this coming
fall. I’m going to
make it happen.”
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