Scott's Story
“Hi, I’m Scott. I’ve worked full-time at Stanford Medicine as a bus operator for over 11 years. It’s a great job, and I really enjoy the customers and the people I work with.
Life has generally been pretty good for me. I’ve always worked hard, I’m an optimist and am conservative with my finances. But after a series of financial setbacks, including divorce, alimony and child support payments, my ability to fund my own living expenses was drastically reduced. I just couldn’t keep up, despite downsizing rentals several times. As time went on, I just couldn’t afford my apartment, and had to start sleeping on the streets.
After a long discussion with someone I’d met several times over my career, Officer McPherson of the Mountain View Police Department, she told me about HomeKey (LifeMoves Mountain View interim housing, part of the California State Homekey program). She helped me apply, and I’m living there right now. It’s giving me some time to look at housing options, which I can’t say is easy here in Silicon Valley. But I learned about The United Effort Organization (the UEO), a non-profit, and their volunteers are helping me apply for affordable housing.“
Volunteers at the UEO developed, and actively maintain, a valuable tool found on the Find Affordable Housing page of their website, theunitedeffort.org. It greatly simplifies housing searches, and is used by people in need of housing, as well as by volunteers across Santa Clara County. It’s easy to use: You can search properties by waitlist status, city, maximum rent, or unit type. You can also search for special housing types, such as senior housing or housing for the developmentally disabled, by using a filter for the populations targeted by those properties. For properties that list specific income limits, you can enter a person’s yearly income to automatically filter out those properties that require higher annual income. The search result can be printed by clicking “Print summary of results” which will show a detailed rent table.
“I am very grateful to The United Effort Organization for all the help they give to me and others in searching for public assistance and housing, and to Hope’s Corner for the help they gave me in the form of hot meals and showers when I was homeless. Thanks to these organizations and others, I’m in temporary housing at Homekey, and getting closer to finding a permanent safe home!”