Tisha

I am a 19 year old mother of two small children. Me and my children had always lived with my parents.  After a long period of family disputes with my unstable parents, I was finally told I could no longer stay in my childhood home with my children.  I tried staying with friends and co-workers and after exhausting all my resources, I finally called the Union County Community Shelter.

I had been working with a local restaurant for over a year and I made enough money to sustain housing but I struggled with saving money for upfront moving costs. The case manager there agreed to help me with emergency housing in a local motel.   While in the motel program I was assisted with budgeting to be able to save, as well as referrals to partner agencies for childcare assistance and upfront moving costs.  Within twenty one days, I was able to save up more than half of the upfront moving costs and I was assisted by the shelter and DSS to help with the remainder of the costs.  I was very excited to move into my very first apartment! I went through the 12 months of  Post Housing case management and I am happy to reports that me and my children are doing very well.  I have continued to use my budget and I have a small emergency fund established now.