Jesse  and his wife Maggie came into our office at Francis House on October 26, 2001, looking for housing.

They lived in Oregon, at the time and wanted to move so their oldest daughter and son could attend college in the Sacramento area.  They had Section 8 in Oregon and had taken the time and effort to get the voucher transferred to Sacramento. They are hardworking people who were self-employed, but also took jobs whenever they needed to.  They also had excellent rental history and good credit. To them, it should have been fairly easy to find a place.

He had given notice to his current landlord for December 1, 2001. He was optimistic about finding a place with a maximum rent of $1,252. At that time, the vacancy rate in Sacramento was 2% or less, and fewer landlords were accepting Section 8.

They called multiple times from Oregon, checking to see if we had found anything, but there was nothing to be had. They came back down, and we were able find two places for them to check out.  One owner had a 4 bedroom place, but was concerned because ”that many people in the house could cause a strain on the plumbing” (they have 5 children). We sent them back to Oregon again, exhausted from continuous driving and spending the night in the van.

Finally, Jesse came back down alone during the month of December. He said he was going to hang around until we found him a place, and he sure did! He would come into the office in the Park on a daily basis, and would tell me about his adventures living in his car and talking to other homeless people in the Park. He never complained. He was always very thankful for any time & effort we  gave him. He saw this time as a growing experience, and was continually amazed at the work the Loaves and Fishes and Francis House staff did for others.

One day when he was in the office, we took a chance and called on owner we had not talked to for some time. He had a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house that would be vacant in about a week and accepted section 8.

He went back to Oregon to tell Maggie. Then he brought the whole family down.  They didn’t want to stay in the overflow shelter because they had a 1 month old baby (the oldest girl delivered during this time period). They finally ended up staying in a combination of the cars, motels, and Maggie’s family while they waited for the house to be cleaned.

Jesse was still having trouble raising enough money for a deposit.   The owner said he hadn’t found any prospective tenants that he liked as much as he like Jesse and his family. He allowed them to give him half the deposit.  The house passed the Section 8 inspection and Maggie gave the owner the rest of the deposit and the prorated rent.

Jesse and his family are now living happily in their new home.