Susan’s Story
A recent survey found that 59% of Americans are just one paycheck away from homelessness. Susan learned this firsthand when she became homeless for the first time. She has an advanced degree and had enjoyed a successful career, but a divorce depleted her savings and then she was hospitalized for an extended period.
While she was hospitalized, she wasn’t working or able to pay her rent, so she was evicted from her apartment. With an eviction on your credit record, it can be virtually impossible to find housing. After applying for housing and being turned down repeatedly, Susan stopped looking and instead stayed with family, friends, or in extended-stay motels.
When the Lakewood home where she was renting a room was sold, she had just three weeks to secure new shelter but couldn’t find anything in time. So, she put her belongings in a storage unit and temporarily moved into her car.
“I was caught off guard,” says Susan, 59, who discovered the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative (CSPI) online. CSPI SafeLots provide safe, legal places for people experiencing homelessness to shelter in their vehicles overnight, as well as bathrooms, meals, health and mental health care, and help finding housing.
Getting into a SafeLot in Arvada took away many of the concerns Susan had about living in her car. She worried about finding places to park at night where it would be safe, legal, and distant from illegal activities. “I would have been scared to death,” she says.
Even in a SafeLot, living in her car was a challenge. As an Uber driver, Susan would leave the SafeLot early each morning and go to her storage unit, where she would remove her personal belongings from her car so she could ferry passengers for the day. Then she would go to the gym to shower, vacuum the car, and start her day. “I had to be back at the storage by 10 p.m., repack everything in my car, and then go to the lot” where she would sleep for the night.
As if that wasn’t difficult enough, she was also taking classes at a local community college, where she’s studying photo and video editing for a second career. And, Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery just a month before losing her temporary housing; her radiation treatments started while she was living in her car.
“It was exhausting. It was really hard,” recalls Susan, who was keeping her housing status a secret, even from close friends and family. “Was anyone going to know I live in my car?” she worried. “I was really ashamed and embarrassed. I’m such a successful person, and here I am ending up homeless. Having to keep a secret like that was very stressful.”
The SafeLot helped to alleviate that isolation. “I felt so welcomed by everybody at the lot,” Susan recalls. “We all looked after each other.”
Other SafeLot guests shared tips and tricks for surviving Colorado’s climate while living in a car. “We all encouraged each other, and we were all very happy when something good happened to someone. We didn’t have much, but everyone was willing to share what they had. Community happened.”
The church hosting the lot provided showers and hot meals twice a week. “I love to cook and to have a hot meal in the evening,” Susan says. “That seems like such a simple thing, but it was really comforting that they would take the time out to do that.”
Susan’s SafeLot community also hosted a cookout for her birthday and had a celebration when she finished her radiation therapy. And it was other SafeLot guests who encouraged Susan to apply for housing again, even though she’d been turned down so many times. This time, the answer was “yes,” and she recently moved into a third-floor apartment in a new 55+ community in Westminster. One of Susan’s close friends from the SafeLot lives just upstairs.
SafeLot volunteers helped to furnish and decorate Susan’s new apartment, and just before Thanksgiving, a volunteer stopped by with a gift card and ingredients for a holiday meal. “They haven’t forgotten about us even though we’re not there anymore.”
Susan is once again enjoying the comfort and safety of her own home, where she can pursue her hobbies and new career. “I haven’t been able to do things like crochet or paint or even have plants for a long time,” says Susan, who has joined her new community’s crocheting club.
“We can’t control whether we get sick or lose a job, or if the job we have chosen pays very little and it’s not a living wage. One disaster can put you over the edge,” Susan notes. Fortunately, when Susan reached that edge herself, she found a SafeLot to help. “It gave me a lot of peace in my life, and I was able to do what I needed to do because I had a support system,” she says. “That’s the important thing about those lots: You have a chance to breathe.”
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