Our Stories: Raquel

My name is Raquel and I am a 20 year old single parent residing in an emergency shelter with my two year old daughter Jasmiah. My daughter and I were both very afraid and stressed by the experience of becoming homeless.

When I became homeless I was left with no choice but to go to DTA in order to seek shelter. It took about three hours before I was seen, then approximately six and a half hours to be placed in a hotel room….not even a shelter. I arrived at the hotel at seven pm that evening and was moved out to shelter the next morning. I arrived at a family shelter, where I would live with fourteen other homeless families.

During our first three months here Jasmiah would not socialize with anyone, she would hardly ever smile. Here we are eight months later and it does not look like I will be moving soon. Everywhere I go to apply there are long, frozen and closed waitlists. If I had access to a subsidy early on I could have avoided this situation.

Through my struggles in shelter I have somehow managed to put begin saving so that when I finally do get housing I will be able to furnish my apartment. However with no funding it may be several months before that happens.

An MRVP voucher could change every thing for me. I could then have access to a rent that is affordable. Please help me by considering the possibilities that an MRVP could provide my family with and support MRVP.