Ms. Rhonda Garner was referred to our program about a year and a half ago. Rhonda was one of Melvin Hernandez’s, very first batch of client’s when he first joined CRCD as an ICMS Case Manager. Before being matched to CRCD’s scattered sites program, which was new at the time, Ms. Garner was homeless and had been homeless for a little over 10 years. Ms. Garner was born and raised in South Central, so she is very familiar with her surroundings and neighboring cities. Although residing in South LA her entire, something Ms. Garner was not familiar with was the type of assistance that was available for her to utilize while experiencing homelessness. Homelessness was a huge obstacle that she faced, lack of resources, lack of food supply, lack of shelter, however, as time went by, Ms. Garner was able to gain knowledge on certain resources and utilize them in order to continue surviving while unfortunately facing homelessness. 

Ms. Garner heard about CRCD for the first time when she met Melvin for intake paperwork. Ms. Garner was referred to CRCD by DHS, which is how she joined the program. She was mostly excited about being connected to services that will potentially get her into permanent housing. The services at CRCD impacted Ms. Garner as she worked hand in hand with Melvin, and we finally got her placed into a unit. 

The support and things that she appreciated the most from CRCD she says was “My case manager, you never gave up”. At the very beginning, the client was hard to track due to lack of communication and the client always moving around from encampment to encampment. There was a time when Melvin had lost connection with Ms. Rhonda, but after a couple of phone calls, extensive outreach, and word-of-mouth from people who were connected to Ms. Garner, I was able to find her and found a stable location to meet her in. When asked what support she appreciated the most, Ms. Rhonda stated, “Like I said, you never gave up on me. You looked and looked for me until you found me. By then, you were able to connect me with this beautiful unit and I still cannot believe this is true. I never thought I’d see the day and it’s thanks to you and thank you to Jesus, I am so excited”. 

Ms. Garner is extremely grateful that things were able to fall into place for her. When asked what she is more proud of during her time with CRCD and what her biggest accomplishment was she quickly answered “This right here!” as she pointed at her unit. Ms. Garner could not be anymore proud. She is thankful to have been pushed to have all her necessary documentation ready to make everything a much easier process when it came to voucher applications along with applications for a unit. For the future, what the client is most excited about is little by little decorating her home, and having family come visit her and see how long she has come. She is excited to utilize her rooftop area in her apartment unit, she says it is one of her favorite things. Her goals are to enjoy this place she calls home now for as long as she can.