Roxanne began working with MW this past fall. MW has had a difficult year, she lost her chiropractic assistant job, due to health issues that kept her from working. MW started October 31st for orientation and her first day of work. Salary for $13.50 for Burlington Coat Factory. She was previous employed with Burlington Coat Factory last year and beginning this year but due to COVID they had to lay her off and could not offer permanent employment. MW is hoping, despite the economy, she will be hired on as a permanent employee. While she struggles with a very complex personal life, she is eager to find another part time job in the medical field this is something we work on together during our weekly follow ups.
Collis also works with MW on our housing side. We began working with MW in 2020 for housing and with COVID 19 it has been a struggle. Collis and MW worked together to maintain the housing that she is in currently and also to search for the housing that she would like to be in. MW has worked hard to maintain her employment but is now focused on finding new housing that fits her situation.
Roxanne is also working with AA. AA is a single mother, she has 4 children ages 2,3, 8, and 9 years old. AA is currently working at Taco Bell in Bonney Lake she started her job in September. She works a full-time position 5 days a week from 9 to 5 pm. AA has fast food experience and enjoys working at Taco Bell. AA says she wants to stay at Taco Bell and advance as a shift manager eventually. AA has dreams of eventually going back to school to get her GED. Rhiannon works with AB. He got a job at Grocery Outlet at location 11011 Pacific Hwy SW Lakewood, WA 98499 stocking on 6/24/19. AB enjoys working here and interacting with his coworkers. AB really enjoys working hard and doing the job right. He likes helping wherever he can but prefers to help with freight. AB has fast become a ‘friend’ to everyone he works with and many of the customers know him and state ‘he is such a helpful man’.
Collis works with AB in our housing program. When EASE first started working with AB, he was homeless, staying at shelters. He has since gained housing and has been successfully housed since 09-2019. We still look for his dream housing situation but working with his support team to figure that out is what always puts a smile on AB’s face.
Rhiannon also works with KC. She got a new position as a vet on Thursdays and Fridays at Reber Ranch location 28606 132nd Ave SE Kent, WA 98042 starting 9/10/20. KC has been a vet for many years and loves working with animals. She likes to be able to have a part time job that still allows her to work with animals. KC also works two days a week at Amazon prime Now warehouse located at 11710 118th Ave NE Kirkland, WA 98034. She started her position on 10/27/20 and enjoys her second job and hopes to continue succeeding there.
Rhiannon’s third successful placement is with AQ. She got a customer service job at Express located at 3500 S Meridian Puyallup, WA 98373. AQ enjoys working and providing for her kids. She would eventually like to start looking for another part time job or possibly moving up where she is currently employed.
Georgia also works with AQ in our housing department. AQ and her support at CCS found her an apartment in 2019. Georgia assists AQ to find rental and utility assistance when needed. They also work together on finding her perfect housing scenario so that they can work on making that dream a reality.
Jacqui is SR’s employment specialist. She has helped place SR at in a customer service job at Target in Bonney Lake, WA. Her start date was 11/11/20 and she now works 15-20 hours per week. SR just started her job recently but seems to really enjoy it. SR works with the cash register and does a good job. She is also getting cross-trained in stocking, so in down time she can assist where she is needed.
Jacqui also helps OH at Ease with his employment needs. OH got a janitorial position at Auburn Nursing and Rehab in Auburn, WA working 20-30 hours per week. He started in November of 2019 and loves working with the people and is glad to work for this company. Jacqui checks in with OH monthly to assure that he does not need anything. OH could not be happier in his employment.
Jacqui also works with AN. AN is an auction driver for DAA Seattle in Auburn, WA. He works 15-20 hours per week and started his job on 7/01/19. AN at first had difficulty remembering his route but after a few days of working with him he did great and was even getting some overtime as he is proficient at what he does. AN continues to look for full time employment, although he loves working at DAA and does not foresee leaving there. AN drives cars onto the auction ramp and off the auction ramp. Help helps to clean and maintain equipment. AN has fast become a favorite at DAA with other staff and customers as his wining personality sets him apart from everyone else.
MB is another participant that Ease has helped find employment for. Jacqui has helped place MB with a job in customer service at Walmart in Tacoma, WA working 30-40 hours a week. Her start date was 9/01/19. MB at first was a little scared but once she got the hang of the job, she is doing good and is cross training in other areas as well to learn all that she can. Many of the managers try to get MB to move to their areas, as she is so successful in her customer interactions, and her need to do the job right.
Collis also works with MB in the housing department. Placing her was difficult as she is young and has not established credit of her own. She had no rental history but desperately wanted her own place. Collis and MB found her an apartment that fit all of MB’s wants and needs. Collis continues to look for places that would fit MB’s dreams for her future. KG is also a participant at Ease that Jacqui works with. KG got a customer service job on 12/02/19 at McLendon’s in Tacoma, WA and works 15-20 hours a week there. KG was not sure of the job at first but once she got the hang of it, she likes it and looks forward to going to work. KG also picked up a job at the United States Postal Service on 11/16/20 in Tacoma, WA. She works as a postal service clerk 20-40 hours per week. She was not sure of the job at first but once she got the hang of it, she likes it and looks forward to going to work every day, KG stated she likes her coworkers most of them are nice and understanding of her and her needs. Amanda is JD’s employment specialist at Ease. JD was given to her with employment already, but he was working at Amazon in Seattle and his mom wanted him transferred to closer to home. He started working at Amazon in July of this year and on November 11th he started his first day at the Dupont Facility. He is now working four days a week ten hours a day and really loves it. Amanda continues to assist JD in maintaining his employment at the job he loves with Amazon.
HE got a job in sales at ST Vincent De Paul in Tacoma, WA working 40 hours per week. His start date was in Aug of 2019. HE participates with Stacci at Ease but applied for and got this job on his own. Stacci has helped him to maintain his job and works with him to assure he has all that he needs to be successful. He has been working for over a year and loves his job. Georgia works with HE in the housing department. Together they found his apartment. This apartment fits HEs want and needs. Georgia checks in monthly with HE to assure that he doesn’t need anything to maintain his housing.
CL started work at 72nd Street Veterinary in Tacoma, WA in December of 2019. She works 20-30 hours per week as a receptionist. CL is a single mom of two great kids and works to assure they have everything they want and need. CL is happy to have a job where she can work with animals. She tells Stacci that is her favorite part of her work. Marta works with ML, a student and overall good guy. ML started his position at Home Depot in Federal Way, WA on 10/12/20. He works 20-30 hours per week as a lot associate. He applied and got the job on his own, discussed a few work-related issues with EP Marta, but he has resolved them himself and after brainstorming with EP decided to continue in this position. He works with Marta to maintain his position and also to finish his school, he prioritizes his life with the help of his support group around him.
LM started his job at Route 66 Pizza in Orting, WA in October 2020. He works 10-20 hours per week as a delivery driver. LM is so happy to have a job, he does well and is learning new tasks. LM is one of those people that understand an income is not guaranteed and working is a privilege. LM works with both Marta and Stacci at Ease employment. LM has overcome many barriers to get to this job and is very excited to be able to contribute to his community. LM also works with Collis in housing. He was successfully placed in a house where he was able to work on some of his barriers. LM was able to overcome many of those problems while living in this house. Sadly, this house was closed due to COVID and LM was put back out onto the streets. We still work on finding housing for this hard-working man. KY started janitorial work at T-Mobile field in Seattle, WA in August 2018. He works parttime 10-20 hours per week. KY got this job and really struggles with the idea of he needs more hours. KY loves the organization that he works for and wants to work there forever. KY has a family and works hard to make them proud and keep them safe. KY expresses he loves his job. Stacci works with KY to try to find another job that he will enjoy just as much as the T-Mobile field job.
Jn works with Georgia in the housing department. He was placed in a housing in 2020 and is successfully thriving there. He loves his apartment and tells Georgia if he has any unmet needs for his housing. They talk once a month and Georgia helps him to maintain his housing. JP works with Collis in the housing department. JP had many barriers to overcome to find housing. JP had a terrible credit score thanks to someone hacking her credit. She also is working with several health issues that make her housing a necessity. Collis and JP found an apartment that will keep her off the street while they continue to look for her permanent housing opportunity. Collis was ablet to help JP clean up the credit issues and made it possible for her to pass the credit history application to get into the apartment.
CS works with Marta in the housing department. The biggest barrier for CS and her two kids is that they have been homeless for a couple of years. Marta was able to help CS become independent enough to put her health needs on the important list. Marta also set up a budget that helped her save enough money that when they found the opportunity for housing CS had the money saved to get into the housing. CS and Marta continue to look for her dream housing opportunities but now they do that from a safe warm apartment that CS maintains.
Collis placement Success stories:
When HE joined the Supported Housing Program in December 2020, she immediately expressed that she had to be out of her current housing by the 15th of January 2021, due to the owner of the home selling the house. Working alongside HE we began pounding the pavement trying to find the perfect housing within our given time restraint. HE was and I made a perfect team with HE is searching for housing and presenting them to me, then I would then go to the property manager's office to get the paperwork started for HE. Though we were working day in and day out we did not meet our target date, due to no fault of our own, we always just seemed to be a day late and the housing opportunity would be taken by another applicant. When the requested move-out day inevitably came HE had nowhere to go. To prevent her from sleeping in her car in the middle of the winter an agreement was made with the property manager to allow her to remain on the property for another week. That extension gave Heather and me the perfect amount of time to continue our search and secure a move-in-ready unit. On January 23rd HE signed her lease agreement and moved into her new home.
Statement from HE after obtaining housing –
“ At the time of my intake with EASE, I had already been trying to find housing for 6 months without any luck. I had all but given up entirely until I met with the team who quickly earned my confidence and restored my hope that I would indeed find somewhere to live.
What I did not expect was the extent to which Collis devoted himself to my case and made himself available to me. He always returned my calls and replied to my texts and emails almost immediately. With the imminent threat of homelessness weighing on me, I cannot overstate what it meant to me to know he was truly devoted to making the seemingly impossible a reality for me. I felt like he cared about finding a home for me just as much as I did (if not more!).
Due to COVID, leasing offices are closed to the public so speaking to property managers about availability and applications was impossible if they didn’t call back (which happened A LOT). When one apartment I applied for stopped returning my calls and emails, Collis went down to their office and did not leave until he spoke to someone. Since I was unable to physically go to places to submit applications and do tours, Collis handled it for me.
In less than a month of working with him, I signed a lease and finally had a home. I would be homeless right now if not for Collis and his dedication to my case. Even after achieving my initial goal, he is still helping me to remove potential barriers to housing in the future.
He did not let me fall through the cracks or give up on me even when I felt defeated. I am forever grateful to him and will never forget how drastically he changed the course of my life for the better. “
- HE
MB Success Story –
When MB joined the Supported Housing Program, she had the goal established to move out of her mother's place and into a place all her own. MB had the income to support herself but was denied housing on multiple occasions due to no credit history. We decided it would be in her best interest to disclose this upfront to property managers to see if an exception could be made for MB where she could pay a higher deposit in place of good credit history. Once we found a property manager who was able to agree with those terms it only took 72 hours for MB to sign the lease agreement for her first apartment. Though this is not her forever home MB now has a place of her own which allows her to establish a good rental history. Also, MB has been able to start building her credit, by taking advice from professionals and participating in online seminars.
Statement from MB after obtaining housing –
“Collis was amazing helping me find my apartment. This is my first apartment ever, and he answered every single question I had. Which there was a lot. He Broke things down with lots of important information that I needed. He still continues to be a big advocate even though I’ve found an apartment. It was an enjoyable experience working with him. I’m very grateful.”
- MB
AP Success Story.
When AP and I began working together in June of 2020, he did not have much direction for where he wanted to go with his housing. He and his family had just recently moved into the Mother-in-law quarters of a friend’s house after living in a car with his family for a few years. He wanted to give his family time to adjust to the new living situation before moving with his family. So, while we waited to begin applying for housing AP and I would look at the available apartments on the market to see what his family would be able to afford using their combined income and how much the move-in costs would be for him and his family. This allowed Aaron and his family to establish a budget and begin saving.
In November AP and his family were ready to begin applying for housing. At this time they were informed that the owner was selling the property and they would have to find a new place to go. Also, AP and his family wanted to continue living with their friend and want me to find a place that could fit all of them. This made things difficult because the two families had separate housing needs and trying to accommodate all of them limited AP’s options. On multiple occasions, AP and his family would pass on great affordable housing opportunities to accommodate the needs of their friend. In February 2021, they were all informed that the property had been sold and they had 30 days to vacate the premises.
The Supported Housing Team had to have a meeting with AP and his family to inform them that if they continued to pass on housing opportunities to accommodate their friend they would have limited housing opportunities and it was likely that they would end up homeless again. The reality of the situation changed the family’s perception of the housing opportunities that they were being presented with and collectively became more proactive.
Even with AP and family being proactive and searching day and night for housing, we kept running into the problem that none of the units that were found were move-in-ready. It was not until the Monday before the Thursday that they had to vacate the premises were we able to tour a move-in-ready unit.
After advocating on AP and his family’s behalf the Property manager stated that he would make an exception to the rule and AP and his family would not have to submit a holding fee for the unit to take it off the market, even though there were submitted application ahead of theirs. Aaron and his family submitted their application and supporting documents immediately and had their application approved with 24 hours. On March 18th exact day they needed to vacate the premises Aaron and his family signed the lease agreement and moved into their new apartment.
Statement received from Aaron -
“Collis had been working his butt off, I understand that it’s a process, but I believe that he did really good. When Collis finally got us a place, I did not know how I was going to do the actual move, because in the past when I moved with my mother and my sister, I had to do all the lifting on my own and it’s taken a toll on me. But with the extra help, Collis provided made the move go a lot faster. I am glad that we were able to finally get a place with Collis doing what he could.”
- AP
