Almost seven months after explaining her story to the Renton Reporter, Sally de Leon and her family finally have a place to call home.
De Leon shared her experiences as a veteran for a series of articles on the countywide Veterans and Human Services Levy that passed in August 2011.
At the time de Leon and her daughter Bernadette Sheran and son Mark Sheran had recently found housing at the Compass Veterans Center in downtown Renton.
De Leon had suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome, went through a divorce, lost her home and had a mental breakdown before she got enrolled in the supportive housing program through the Compass Veterans Center.
Now she and her family have “graduated” from the Compass Center to a rental house in Bellevue.
“It feels good, I like it,” said Bernadette, 13. “It’s more space.”
She still misses their apartment at the Compass Center, but likes her nice room, which she calls “pretty big.”
Sally de Leon got the call in November that she qualified for the Housing and Urban Department Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing Voucher, or HUD VASH Voucher.
For de Leon, the call meant she would soon have greater freedom to live on her own with her family but still get case-management support from Veterans Affairs.
She called her reaction to finally finding a home with rent she could afford “sad-happy.”
She was sad to be leaving her home at the Compass Center but happy to be moving on.
After looking at multiple homes that didn’t fit her voucher allotment, she found a landlord sympathetic to her situation.
De Leon shared her story with Kane Mordaunt, her landlord, and he lowered her rent by $250.
Mordaunt wasn’t the only one helping to pave a way to a new home for de Leon and her family.
Social justice group, Solid Ground, provided de Leon with a grant for her downpayment after she took their financial boot-camp class for money management.
Since Compass Veterans Center opened in October 2010, it has had 13 households move into permanent housing, according to Denise Missak, Compass program manager.
Of the 13 households, four households moved from non-permanent apartments to permanent apartments at Compass Center.
The King County Veterans and Human Services Levy supports services at Compass Veterans Center.
Funds from the levy also go to support the direct service costs for programs like the King County Education and Employment Resources’ Career Connections.
Brigid Cabellon is de Leon’s Career Connections education and employment coordinator with the program at Renton’s WorkSource.
She has been helping de Leon with services for the past year and a half.
With counseling, de Leon completed her para-legal associate’s degree in December and has plans to continue her education to perhaps be a consulting nurse with a legal background as a back-up plan.
In the past 16 months, Career Connections has received referrals for services for 76 veterans, according to Cabellon. Sixty-nine veterans have received comprehensive services from the program’s coordinators.
“Career Connections is working with a large number formerly homeless veterans who are residing in transitional housing,” Cabellon said via e-mail.
The program gets referrals from Compass Housing Alliance.
Kim Brown is de Leon’s social worker; she knew de Leon was eager to move to permanent housing.
Brown works for Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System and is a member of the Community Housing Outreach Services HUD VASH team.
“In my experience here (there) are no typical journeys,” Brown said in an email. “Each veteran I have worked with has their own unique history, set of challenges and reasons that they were homeless.”
She thinks it’s great that the Compass Center is there for veterans.
“It’s exactly the kind of place veterans need to stabilize as they move from homelessness to be ready for permanent housing.”
