Community Housing Network helps single mother find home

MICHIGAN - "I didn't have money for rooms," said single mother Brandi Dexter-Walker. "We had to stay with friends, or whoever would let us stay there."

Brandi stayed with her mom for a while in Texas. She was even in a domestic violence shelter. The pandemic has made it even harder for her to find a home and pay for temporary housing. 

"I was doing Door Dash and Lyft," Brandi said. "Whatever I could do to get money and pay for rooms every day."

In May, she got a call from Community Housing Network (CHN). They told her they had a place for her to live.

"I just didn't want to see my kids go through that no more," Brandi said. 

"I don't mean to sound alarmist, but there's a tsunami waiting for when this eviction moratorium lifts people who are going to become home," said Kirsten Elliot, VP Development for Community Housing Network.

As you may expect, organizations that help the homeless like CHN have seen the impact of the pandemic play out. 

From 2019 to now, 2,600 people used the organization's prevention services, compared to 114 in approximately the same period between 2018 and 2019, and now once someone is homeless - getting them housed poses challenges. 

"We'll have resources to get somebody housed, but finding a landlord that has an opening and that will allow us to rent to that person of they have a blemished credit history, has been difficult. 

But the payoff is real for people coming out of difficult situations. 

 "I never been so grateful for something in my life," Brandi said. "I never imagined that I would be going through that and to be going somewhere so nice and I love it here."