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There is no way for me to put into words just how crucial this role is in the whole program, because you really are that center point where all roads are converging. The first thing I do is connect with homeless individuals or people that are about to lose their place due to loss of income or whatever, and assess their situation. See if they're qualified for the program. Then help them get enrolled into it and take them on to my caseload.

And then we begin applying for assistance, rental assistance. And once they're approved for that, we begin to identify places, apply to various places. And once they're approved, we move them into permanent housing, which is often a very happy day with many tears for them. And then for the long term, like three or four years out into the future, we work with them in case management to help their whole life become stabilized.

Hey, Jeff.

We've been homeless roughly about seven years. The majority of us have been here in Forest Grove. We have been trying for the last three years to get our housing acquired. The first couple of years, they'd get a little bit done and then they'd fall off. Get a little bit of information done, and then they fall off.

I've been homeless for seven years. My woman died seven years ago. I kind of lost my direction in life. And my body fell apart and I couldn't work anymore. I've been filing for disability ever since.

We've got our approvals for our apartment, and so we can finally move in and we can move forward.

Michael has been great. When we first started to rent a few places, there was a place where I got. We got there, and five minutes later both of those places were rented. And me and him had a talk on the phone. When I found out about this place, I said, look, luck happened again. The Reynolds office was only open for five minutes. I happened to be the first one in there, and they said they got two apartments. I said, I don't care. I'm taking one. File that. And he filed that night. After his hours, he was on the phone with me and he got the job done. I can't say more for the guy.

Most of the people that I'm working with are motivated to get themselves financially stable, but they need housing stability to get there. So that housing stability is huge because then they feel like they can actually do it. They can accomplish their goals.

I'm so excited I can hardly see straight. It's like, for real? Is this real? Yes. Yes, it is. It's real. So my plan is I'm going to get-- I would like to get sober and put a roast in the crock pot and take 50 bubble baths in one day. And watch cartoons and snuggle in bed with my husband and take my tea.

Yeah, she's a nester. She does--

Just trying to find myself.

One of the things I tell everybody on my caseload that I'm not just a case manager, I'm your friend. Our paths have merged, and we're in this journey together. And then it's, like, I just do a constant reminder when I'm we're on phone calls or in person, I just constantly say, look, you're amazing. And here's all the reasons why you're amazing. Trying to convince them that they're worthy of housing, and they're not the loser that they've been told they are. And so there's a lot of re-education of the individual to say, hey, you can do this. I'm here for you. And you're worth it.

I spent a long time being by myself in the field, depressed. There's been a few times-- there was one time I went and told my son, I met up with him later, I said, I'm tired of this. I don't want to be here anymore. And he knew I wanted to commit suicide. He made me realize how important it was to be a father again. So I kept going back there. And about two months ago, I said, I'm going to be living out there. I might as well try to find a place out here.

I've been homeless myself three times. I've got the skills and I've got the resources, but I don't have the time because surviving is full-time work. I just don't have the time to connect to the resources I even know about myself.

All the stuff that we would do, which would be chores basically, they're chores, but that's what you have to do out here. Now we won't have to necessarily do that, so we can focus on taking time to do the other things that we need to do.

I mean, I've had people just once we get the keys and we walk into the living room, they're in tears. And to me, I've been doing this kind of work for 29 years. But even today, I can't do it without crying because, man, there's my brother or sister whose life has changed. And what's happened then, I'll call them and say, let's get an appointment to come up with the next phase of your case plan. Look at employment. Look at college or whatever. And I've had so many of them said, look, I've already been making phone calls. I've already been applying.

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