Helen Finds Home: Family Housing graduates settle into their new house in a friendly neighborhood

Helen and her five children were staying at Mary Jo’s place, a shelter near downtown Minneapolis, when an advocate referred them to Simpson Housing Services’ Family Housing program. The Simpson program, which serves up to 40 families at a time, holds a weekly lottery for openings. During most weeks, due to capacity constraints, Simpson turns away over 30 families seeking housing.

For many weeks Helen called on Tuesday afternoon. “One week I got down on my knees with the phone in my hand and prayed. It was November and I didn’t want to be in the shelter for Christmas.” That week there happened to be openings in the program and Helen entered the lottery with the hope of being selected. As luck would have it, her name was drawn that Tuesday.

Helen reflects on Simpson and the last couple of years

Families entering the Family Housing program receive assistance finding an affordable home and money to help make the rent. Each family is assigned an advocate to help them develop skills needed to maintain stability (families stay in the program for up to two years). Simpson pointed Helen towards a lovely home in the uptown area of south Minneapolis and she and her family were settled in time for Christmas.

The five kids were blossoming. Helen was a stickler for school attendance. “My kids go to school and that’s that.” Helen, on the other hand, was having trouble finding work. Although she now has a steady job that she loves at Target there was a lot of rejection along the way, and a lot of tears born of frustration. “One thing about Helen is that even through the tough times she had faith and surrounded herself with positive people. This has served her well along the way,” reports Janelle Leppa, Simpson Transitional Housing Manager.
Families in the program work with a Simpson advocate to create five short-term goals. “Setting the goals got me motivated and focused my mind on doing all the things that I needed to do,” says Helen.

Helen and her family achieved all of their goals in their two years in the program and it was time to graduate. They applied for every public housing and Section 8 program (a federally funded initiative that provides rental assistance to lower income households) there was to be found, but were not accepted anywhere. Regardless, they forged ahead and found a home in northeast Minneapolis. They moved in and two weeks later Helen got word that she and her family had been accepted into public housing in a Minneapolis suburb.

Nearly nine months after leaving the Simpson Transitional Housing Program, they are doing better than ever. As much as Helen is in love with her house, she is even more in love with her new neighbors and neighborhood. “My neighbors are like my family.”

Helen credits much of her family’s success to taking full advantage of the Family Housing program. They attended workshops, outings, and worked closely with their advocate. “Hard times strengthen you,” she tells us. “It’s hard to think where we would be without the Family Housing program.”

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