Elizabeth (her name has been changed to protect her privacy) has been homeless off and on for most of her adult life.  During her worst time she was living on the street, abusing drugs and prostituting herself. 
Despite this sad story, what led up to her getting to this stage is even sadder.
        Elizabeth's life got off to a rough start and not by her choice.  According to her, when she was an infant her mother, who she says was abusing alcohol, threw her down a flight of stairs. She survived that fall, but suffered some permanent brain damage.  The damage was severe enough that resulted in her being developmentall disabled.  Eventually her mom left the picture, but her dad wasn't much better.  According to Elizabeth he was very abusive.  Making matters more difficult was the fact that she was suffering from Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder. 
        In her young adulthood years she began to manifest symptoms of her previous abuse.  The details of her life, at this point, get a little fuzzy.  There are a few things that are clear though, during this time is when she began to prostitute herself and abuse drugs heavily.  She was also in a physically abusive relationship with a person who eventually fathered a child with her.  As an aside, currently, her daughter lives with Elizabeth's ex husband, and Elizabeth calls her frequently just to say how much she loves her.  Elizabeth was also convicted of arson during her young adult years, along with her ex husband, whom Elizabeth claims was the real culprit, and served a couple of years in jail.  In addition, to her developmental disability, her severe mental illness and the domestic and childhood violence she endured, Elizabeth also has to contend with an arson felony on her record.  As if that wasn't enough, Elizabeth also has high blood pressure and several other health problems which require constant medical attention.  Considering all these obstacles placed in her life, Elizabeth has been extremely resilient, just to survive to this point. 
        Her reward for this resiliency, has led her to a small program at CASS for people experiencing chronic homelessness and who also suffer from a severe mental illness.  In this program, a special relationship has been developed with a local housing assistance provider, in order for people to skip some red tape and get right into subsidized housing.  As a rare participant of this program, Elizabeth has experienced some of its prime benefits.  Those primarily being housing, but also including a $50 gift certificate to Fry's, a new phone with 90 day free phone service, pots, pans, dishes, cups, toaster, coffee maker, utensils, a mop and a broom, just to name a few items.  She also receives almost daily visits from a case manager at CASS, who is assigned just to work with people in this special program.  These visits play an extremely important role in Elizabeth's ability to sustain her housing.  After all, she is living in her own apartment for the first time in her over 30 years of life, which naturally leads to some fear and uncertainty. 
        So far so good, this past Thursday marked her second week in her apartment.  She says, and it's noticeable to almost everyone, how happy she is in her new place.  It shows too, in the way she maintains the cleanliness of her apartment, it's almost immaculate.  If you think that is good, then listen to this, she has also begun to attend individual counseling sessions for the first time in her life.  These counseling sessions should provide her with insights into her prior poor choices and learn how to avoid them in the future.  In addition, she is attending the groups required of her for a court diversionary program, whereby participants learn how to lead a life without prostitution. And that's what has been missing from Elizabeth's life, support that provides sustainability.  Not just medication or housing, but a whole range of support, holistic, if you will.  Where she has lived in a residential housing program before, and lived in other places with other people, she has never really received the kind of support she needs to make up for her poor choices and prior abusive circumstances, that led to her choices.  With her effort, desire and our help, that's what we and our service partners hope to remedy, by providing long lasting, comprehensive, supportive services.  An almost definite recipe for success.