Anna’s* goals are like most twenty-something-year-olds. Find a stable job, build her credit, and then buy a home for her family. It’s the American dream.
Anna understands the hard work it takes to achieve that dream. She wants to be self-sufficient, saying “I don’t want a handout.” But she knows first hand the obstacles she and women like her face when “the system is designed to keep you at the bottom.”
Anna is proud that after receiving support from Avenues for Youth as a teen, she had been “off the system” (her term for not needing social services) for several years. She sought support again last winter after her husband was deported under punitive immigration rules and she was pregnant with their third child. Anna enrolled in WIC and MinnesotaCare health insurance, two programs that would give her baby a healthy start during the global pandemic.
Anna is frustrated knowing that things would have been different if her husband was allowed to stay with their family. She says, “I feel punished for marrying and having kids with an immigrant. If he were here, he’d be taking care of his family.” She added, “He didn’t even have a parking ticket.”
Anna was nine months pregnant and on the phone with a Hennepin County case manager when her aunt told her she and her two girls had to move out in five days. Anna looked for an apartment, but nothing was affordable and available on such short notice, so she called the family shelter number the case manager had given her.
Anna and her kids stayed at St. Anne’s Place family shelter for two months, and during that time she gave birth to her healthy baby boy and was able to find an apartment. Anna moved her family into a newly renovated apartment in the Webber Camden neighborhood that is part of Haven Housing’s Next Step Housing supportive housing program.
Anna and her family can live independently in the Next Step Housing apartment as long as they need. She can take comfort in knowing that the same staff she described as “nice and supportive” during her stay in shelter are just a phone call away.
Anna is determined to keep moving toward her goal of homeownership. The biggest challenge she faces now is finding employment that works with the limited schedule available through the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) providers. She’s had to turn down a few job offers because the schedule did not align with when she had access to child care. Finding private childcare outside of the state program is not an option because, as she notes, “The math doesn’t work. I can’t pay $12-$16 per hour for childcare if I’m only making $15 per hour.”
Anna’s family is the first to move from Haven Housing’s St. Anne’s Place family shelter into an apartment that is part of the organization’s Next Step Housing program. It’s a path to independence that we hope more families can take, but it’s also complicated. For more families like Anna to make this move, the right size apartment has to be available at the right time, matched with specific rental assistance, and aligned with Hennepin County’s Coordinated Entry process that ensures the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness receive top priority for housing.
To Haven Housing’s supporters, Anna says, “Thank you. Please don’t stop. Your support helped me find a place to live that wasn’t a homeless shelter. It helped me and my kids move out of shelter faster.”
Looking to the future, Anna notes, “When I move out, someone else can move into my apartment and build themselves up.” She likens the process to a ritual, a right of passage that helps families get back on their feet. That’s her American dream.
*When choosing a name to use in this blog to protect her family’s privacy, Anna’s (not her real name) daughter suggested Rainbow. After a good chuckle, Anna suggested something more traditional because she wants every reader to take their responsibility to be part of the solution seriously.