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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Full of Hope: 'Tracey' and her three children (from left) Malcolm, 7, Rina, 7 months, and Shelby, 18 months, have been living at an InnVision shelter since becoming homeless two months ago. Her husband lives in another nearby shelter for men. The family previously lived in Campbell.
A former Campbell resident struggles with homelessness
InnVision shelter helps local families get back on their feet, survive
By Moryt Milo
The rent was $1,200 and "Tracey" didn't have it. What she did have was a run of bad luck. It happened fast and without warning, and it ended with Tracey and her young son, Malcolm, becoming homeless.
For purposes of confidentiality, the 37-year-old former Campbell woman asked to only be identified as "Tracey."
Her downward spiral began when her husband--her fiancé at the time--was arrested for drug possession. Tracey, pregnant with her second child, Shelby, wasn't working, which left her unable to pay the rent.
Her Campbell landlord quickly served her with an eviction notice. She scrambled to come up with the money, but it was 17 days too late.
"My husband's situation came as a complete shock," she says. "I immediately tried to find a roommate to help pay the rent."
She enlisted the aid of Catholic Charities, which found her a roommate match, but the landlord refused to give her the extra time to finalize the leasing paperwork and forced her out.
"I don't know why he couldn't [have] waited another week," Tracey says. "We would have had the $1,200."
That was the summer of 2000, and today she and her family continue to battle their predicament as they try to get back on their feet and find a permanent home.
After losing her apartment she lived with a friend in Sunnyvale for three months, but it was a temporary situation until her daughter was born in October 2000.
After her daughter's birth, she wanted to find work, but she couldn't afford daycare and had no support system to help watch her two children while looking for a job.
In April 2001, her husband was released from jail and Tracey wanted to find a way to reunite her family. That's when she found InnVision--a program that offers emergency and transitional housing, meals and assistance for people trying to get back on their feet and break out of homelessness.
Tracey is honest about her situation. "It's my fault for being in this situation," she says. "When you have kids you have to be able to take care of them."
But she also wants people to understand that many homeless women and children don't fit stereotypes.
"There is this misconception that a lot of people who are homeless are out there doing nothing or taking drugs or are alcoholics," she says. "I have skills and my son is in school. In fact he just received an award for the most improved student."
InnVision's communication director Mary Liz Cortese says, "You'd be surprised who the homeless are. They might be standing next to you in the grocery line or they might be [cashiers] at Target. Many of the homeless have jobs, but are living from paycheck to paycheck and just need a little assistance."
The problem is more common than most people imagine. Campbell resident and CEO of InnVision Christine Burroughs estimates that homelessness has increased 200 percent since she took over as CEO in 1991.
"Sixty percent of the homeless population is like Tracey, which is why we developed more programs for women and children," she says. "Our philosophy is to break the cycle of homelessness and work with our clients over a longer period of time. We want to take a holistic approach to ensure they will succeed."
Tracey believes InnVision has a winning formula and one that will finally help her overcome homelessness because it offers a full circle of support services such as housing, food, job assistance and childcare. Tracey also has a big advantage over other homeless people. She's employable.
"Tracey is very diligent. She is skilled, multi-talented and very parent oriented," Tracey's InnVision case manager Francella Stevens says. "She just needs a little bit of help to make it all work."
It's assistance Tracey never imagined would be a part of her life when she was going to school at Illinois State University.
After completing two years of college she decided to move out to California to be near her sister because she "wasn't digging the school thing."
It was the mid-1980s and she immediately found a job, with a collection agency in Redwood City. But the company didn't offer medical benefits and 10 years later, Tracey became pregnant with her first child.
"I didn't know anything about welfare. I was totally oblivious to all that," she says. "I had always worked, always had my own place, always had a car and never had to ask anybody for anything until I had my son."
Finding Shelter: Malcolm, 7, pushes his sister, Shelby, 18 months, in a swing on the playground at the InnVision Goergia Travis Center in San Jose. Along with indoor and outdoor play areas for children of all ages, the center offers weekday assistance for women, including diapers, formula and specialized training classes.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Tracey asked San Mateo County--where she was living in 1995--for financial assistance when it came time to have her baby.
"That was the start of all my [financial] troubles," she says.
She returned to work three months after her son was born, but she began missing too many days because of childcare problems. She had no family support system to fall back on, and she couldn't afford daycare. Eventually she lost her job.
"I was paying $400 for rent and $500 for childcare," she says. "It was like coming up with my rent twice. It was really hard."
She went to the county's social services agency looking for help.
"I told them, 'I'm employable, I just need a little financial assistance,'" she says. "I asked my case manager for help and her response was, 'Call me when you find a place.' "
Tracey heard all kinds of the horror stories about the county system but never believed they were true until she had to rely on it.
"I was really shocked," she says. "I left the office crying, holding my 5-month-old baby, with no place to go."
She found herself going on welfare to survive and even leaving the state and moving to Oregon, thinking it might be easier to make a go of it in an area where the cost-of-living was less and with more job opportunities. But it didn't pan out and she returned to California and found InnVision.
When this story was written, Tracey was living at Commercial Street, an emergency shelter program for women and children. Her husband was staying in a different location because joint family housing programs are difficult to find. But he is working again in an administrative job, and Tracey is hoping to also find a job soon.
Since returning to California, Tracey had a third child, 6-month-old Rena, which makes looking for rentals more difficult.
When a family has more than one or two children, landlords are reluctant to rent out apartments, Stevens says. It's an additional hurdle in the battle to end homelessness that Tracey has to overcome.
As she works toward that goal, InnVision is giving her the support she never had before. "This is not like living at an armory with a cot," Cortese says.
At Commercial Street, women have showers and laundry facilities. They have a chance to clean themselves up and get fresh toiletries and clothing. The women receive many basic items that most people take for granted. Tracey and her children receive nutritious meals and a bed, and she can also access computers, go to workshops and receive job search assistance.
She is hoping to hear from the state about possible employment, and if she gets an interview, InnVision will buy her a suit.
Developing a sense of confidence and greater self-esteem is an integral part of the InnVision philosophy. The program creates a supportive environment and has built facilities that are uplifting and not institutional, which create a much more conducive and positive way of thinking, Burroughs says.
"InnVision is much more than a bed; it's a beginning," she says. "The program is one of a kind and successful because it provides a continuum of care that includes emergency shelter, transitional housing, food, counseling, job training, healthcare and childcare."
The organization has a $6 million budget and 88 percent of its funding goes toward client services.
Through a federal block grant, the city of Campbell helps the organization by contributing $5,000 annually to InnVison. Those funds are specifically earmarked for residents like Tracey whose last known address had a Campbell ZIP code.
Tracey is grateful for InnVision's existence and all the assistance she is receiving.
"InnVision helps you with so many things. I don't know where I would be without them," she says. "I never imagined myself homeless, and once I am stable, I want to come back to the program as a volunteer. I want to be able to give back and help others."
Tracey is confident this time she will make it, and those who know her believe she will.
"If she just had a little bit of assistance she could regroup as a family and grow," Stevens says.
A little help is what Tracey asked for the first time, when the cost of living was much lower and jobs were much more plentiful, but the system failed her. This time she has found a dedicated group of people who are willing to help her get back on her feet.
For more information on InnVision, call 408.292.4286 or visit its website at www.innvision.org.
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Campbell, California
