This is the story of Gwen, a veteran who served in the U.S. Army for over 20 years. Since
her retirement, Gwen has had several health problems and has found herself being displaced
more than once having to move from one place to another even having to flee from an abusive
relationship. During one of the moves about a year ago, we crossed paths and GNBC was able
to provide Gwen with some valuable community resources and a quiet place to make an
important phone call. We lost touch shortly after that and didn’t hear from Gwen until recently
when she came back to GNBC with a big smile and filled us in on what had been going on with
her. As it turned out she had been working really hard on herself and paying attention to her
health which had gotten pretty bad and was just now starting to stabilize. Gwen shared her
story about what she had been up to and how she had to move again because her roommate
was bringing their family in to live with them and needed the space. This meant needing to find
a place to live quickly and needing deposits for rent and utilities.
Gwen decided to schedule an appointment with a coach here at GNBC and talk through
some of her options to help her move into her own apartment where she would feel safe and
not be at the mercy of others who control the living arrangements. We were able to help Gwen
with our SURE fund for deposits. After talking with the coach, she realized she could pay for the
deposit if we could help her with the initial application fee and the utility deposit once she was
approved. This took some time as she did the legwork to find an available apartment that she
could afford and accommodate her medical needs. It was important to her to be close to her
community and church as well as easy access to her doctors. GNBC shared updated community
resources with her to help bridge her until she was able to move in.
I am happy to share that not only was Gwen able to move into her own apartment last
week, but she also connected with a veteran’s group that helped her with some of the
associated move-in costs. The best part of this story is the ending. Even though the process was
longer than expected she had the support of several members in our community including the
St Andrew’s Episcopal Church to help ease the burden and keep her spirits up. Gwen never lost
her smile!