Service Learning Log IJV (Ignacio J. Velasco)

Today was a great day; my experience at Project Homeless Connect 6 was unbelievable. To be honest I was a little concerned about the whole experience, this would be my first time working with homeless people here in the U.S and the stereotypes were clearly playing games in my head.
This morning after my work shift I went and took a shower to get ready for my volunteer shift at Project Homeless Connect 6, I checked in and took my clipboard and pen and proceeded to stand in line with the rest of the volunteers. I was surprised to see how many bilingual volunteers there were, I thought I had a special talent in that way but it turned out that there were a lot of us in the line. Two buses came by and finally I was at the front of the line anxiously waiting to see who I would get paired off with. I was paired up with “L” an extremely nice and receptive lady in her early fifties, that to me looked nothing at all like a homeless person or at least the image I had of a homeless person (again stereotypes playing in my head). We introduced ourselves and went on to the coat check station for “L” to leave her coat and purse and went on to get some breakfast. “L” said that she was not hungry because she had had breakfast at the shelter before coming to DU, but she said that she would have some coffee, I agreed and we both got coffee and sat down to chat for a little while and plan our day.
We started talking about her situation and what services she needed and wanted to look into. “L” is currently in a program at the Stout Street Foundation and she has three months left in her program which at the end she has to move out on her own, so housing was the priority. She has a huge advantage over some of the other people coming in because she is lucky enough to have a part time job and some income which would really help her case when it came to housing. I also learned that she did not have a license and she had an outstanding ticket in another state that she thought prevented her from getting her license, so we made a plan to make legal services and licenses our second stop. We went ahead with our plan and headed to housing first and got on the list and picked our number, we still had 40 people ahead of us so we decided to go to legal services. After waiting 10 minutes we were able to speak with someone only to learn that they would not be able to help with her case since the outstanding ticket was in another state. Then we went to the driver’s license station, “L” explained her case to the person at the station and she said they might be able to help, they took down “L’s” contact information and said that they would be in touch on Monday.
We went back to the housing area to wait our turn and spent about 45 minutes just talking. I was really surprised to learn some facts about “L”, she had lived in some cities that I know pretty well, so we talked about that. I learned that this was her only time being homeless and that before going into the Stout Street Foundation program she had lived in the streets for 8 months and she said that “she would never go back there”. She had been very successful, she had been married and had two kids, before getting divorced and went on to live by herself in the Houston area working as an accountant for IBM. Her brother had gotten into some drug problems and she begged him to go and stay with her so that she could help him. While trying to help him out the opposite happened, she got sucked into the drug lifestyle, so much so that she lost her job, house and lifestyle and ended up in the streets of Denver. I was just amazed that she had a family that she stayed in touch with (one sister, one brother, and her two kids plus two grandkids) and that they did not help at all. That really got to me. I guess that family is really important to me and I could not imagine not helping my siblings if they were ever in “L’s” situation.
They called our number and we went on to the interview part were “L” was able to explain her situation and ask for what could be provided for her. We then got the best news of the day. “L” got 4 numbers and addresses to both permanent and temporary housing options for he. And the biggest surprise of all was the deposit grant she got. Basically once she gets housing and has the first month rent the city will help her out by paying the deposit, she was extremely happy with this.
After such good news we went to get some lunch (we were both hungry by now) and went outside the Ritchie Center to enjoy the day and our lunch. After lunch we went to get the goodie bags and the gifts provided then to the check out area and to get her purse and coat. “L” needed to catch the Light Rail to head downtown to her job but she was not sure of where the station was and which route to take, I told her that I was taking Light Rail as well but in the opposite direction and told her that I could go with her to the station and wait for the train with her. She accepted and we both walked together to the station were we said goodbye and headed our separate ways.