We started off the month of January with a couple we have had for over a year. They came to us having been found living under sagebrush near a park. It was December and very cold. The woman had health issues and the man was working in town. We took them in and charged them a minimal amount of rent to have a master bedroom. The woman got her health back and they paid that rent beautifully all year until this past October. He lost his job, and we were told that he found another one in about one week. We did not receive rent for that month. I asked him what happened to his job, and we were told that he indeed lost that one and we were promised the money from a new job he had received. Another month rolled past with us keeping them in good faith and one story led to another. We finally ended up in January, after Christmas and gifts to them, sadly telling them they had to leave. By now they owed almost $2500.00. When they did finally leave, they were both so drunk (which is not allowed) that we allowed them to stay the night and leave the next morning for fear that they would freeze to death. When they left, they had stolen cash from the roommates and left the room a mess with the sliding door wide open at a temperature of 10 degrees!
Last week we told seven people (the couple included in this count) to move out. That was a tough week. We never want people to not have housing or not to take care of themselves. With that said, we have a man that came to us with a very bad foot requiring wound care weekly. He had no job, no registration on his truck, no money for gas and suffering from alcoholism. He was placed on the couch as we only charge a very small amount a month and he paid. At the end of last month, we found that he had drank again and his foot was so infected it was bleeding and just plain gross. We quickly called an ambulance and off he went. After about five days in the hospital, we did decide to give him a second chance. As of now, he does not have a job, and seems uninterested in taking care of himself once again. He is in therapy and still has wound care weekly. We help him with transportation and yet we have given him until the fourth of February to find work or move out. We simply cannot keep housing people for free.... his answer was...."I thought this was a place of HOPE!" We say YES, but not always for free. :o)
Losing faith in humanity is something that we do not want to have happen. Sometimes it becomes tiresome to keep helping people who seem to only want to take advantage of everyone. We give and give and usually at the end of the day we are just losing money. I suppose I am most thankful that it is only money; however, our bank account is not. We will continue to keep on giving and helping people and moving forward. Even with setbacks at the end of the day we absolutely love what we are doing for people. Many hearts mean there is a lot of love to go around!
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