How My Family Climbed Out of Homelessness

Part Three

Part one here.
https://steemit.com/homeless/@matthewtiii/how-my-family-climbed-out-of-homlessness
Part two here.
https://steemit.com/homeless/@matthewtiii/how-my-family-climbed-out-of-homelessness

The Adventure Begins

We left the funeral with heavy hearts and big hopes for what our future had in store for us. We stopped at the last recreational marijuana store in Ft. Morgan, where the funeral had been, and bought an eighth of pretty good quality organic pot. (I smoked my wife never has) We checked our little trailer and got on the road.

Everything went pretty uneventfully until we were almost out of Illinois. We switched off driving and sleeping so we didn't have to stop. Our first hiccup started when an Illinois State highway bandit saw our license plates. He, of course, immediately pulled us over for not having our blinker on long enough before switching lanes. (Uh huh) While pulled over, he said he smelled weed(sure) and told us he would take our kids if I didn't give it up. So I gave it up. Good thing too because I was carrying a gun(which is not illegal) with the magazine in it (which is) and they told me if they had had to call in a dog, they would have kidnapped me for the gun charge as well. They confiscated my stash, which was about 1/3 depleted and I had two pipes that they took. But at least nobody got hurt.

Picture shown as I see it.

The Rest of The Story

We continued on our adventure, not wanting to stop because stopping costs money. We drove through my old Army stomping grounds of Ft. Campbell, KY, on through Tennesee, into North and then South Carolina. Home at last but still homeless.
We arrived in Myrtle Beach at 2a.m. and could not see the water. We decided to sleep in the WalMart parking lot for the night. I was filled with exited energy and did not sleep much. The police cruised through the parking lot a few times, but did not pay us any particular attention. Finally about 4a.m., I drifted off, my mind exhausted from thinking about what lay ahead.

Home Sweet Home

We looked around the next day, trying to find a campground, but at the height of the tourist season, even the KOA is booked and all the camping in Myrtle Beach is expensive. The prices for camping rival the cost of a low priced hotel room. We had some money left, but we could not spend it foolishly.

My wife and I cruised the internet, looking for national parks or state parks where camping would be much cheaper, but, you have to make reservations anwhere close to the beach. We found a website that shows free camping spots all over the US and decided on one that was pretty far from Myrtle Beach, but had facilities.

My wife had already secured a job with the local school system as a bus driver and I figured I could drive a cab when I got my license switched over to South Carolina. We were told by a community organization that we just had to bring our licenses to the DMV and they would switch them. That was not the case. They wanted a birth certificate and proof af address as well. We had been given a p.o. box by the aforementioned community organization, but they wouldn't accept a p.o. box as proof of residence. We got some advice from a person I shall not name to just use any address and switch our insurance coverage to that address. That was how my wife switched her cdl to South Carolina just in time for her to start the training course. I had left my birth certificate in our storage in Colorado somehow, so I had to wait while a new one was sent to our p.o. box.

While waiting for my wife's training to start, we stayed at the campsite in Jamestown. It was a one hour drive to Myrtle Beach from there and we had to keep checking the mail because I was waiting for my birth certificate and my last paycheck was also being sent there (or so I thought). After two weeks of this, our money was running pretty low. We went to check the mail one day and we were pretty early so we decided to have the lunch that the community organization offered. We had never eaten lunch there and I do not know what made us decide to eat there on this day, but it saved us.

While we were eating lunch, we struck up a conversation with a gentleman sitting across from us and he told us that he was a veteran and asked if I was too. I answered in the affirmative, told him I was with the 101st. He then told me about an organization called ECHO or The Eastern Carolina Homeless Organization. He said they helped veterans find housing in Horry(oh-ree) County and gave me the contact information. I called after lunch and left a message. I didn't think much about it, I was worried that my paycheck had not come and we had to find a place to stay in or near Conway which was where my wife had to do her bus driver training.

We scouted a few spots that we had seen on the free camping website and decided we might be better off just staying in the Suburban until I got my check. My wife called her mother and her mother gave us the money to stay in a cheap hotel in Conway for a week. She started her training two days after that and we hung around in the hotel room and did a little exploring around town. It was in the mid 90s during the day and the humidity is very high here, so exploring was at a minimum though we did see some of downtown Conway and the Riverwalk. Our time at the hotel ended and we figured we would have to go back in the Suburban until my paycheck got here. We went Monday morning to our p.o. box and there was my birth certificate but no check. We went to the car to try and figurebout what to do when an ECHO representative called and asked me a few questions and told me to come to their office right away. It was just down the street, so we drove over there and sat down with a Mr. Sean Scurlock he took all of our information and told us about a little know program for getting veterans off of the street. He told me I needed to go to the VA and get proof of service and that he would get back to me a soon as he could. I went and got my proof of service and then dropped it back off to the office.

When we left the office, I had little hope that we would be helped and my wife and I had a huge argument about letting people help us. I didn't want help. I am stupidly proud sometimes and I wanted to do this myself. I declared that we would not accept any help they could give us and that was that. I feel like getting help is somehow a sleight to people who have disabilities and cannot fend for themselves. Like I am taking from people and not giving enough back.

The next day, I went to check the mail and again, no paycheck. I called the motel I had worked at only to find that she had put the wrong name on the envelope and it had been returned to her. Something changed in me at that moment and I gave Sean a call. He told me to come right down to fill out some paperwork and we would get a place to live. I couldn't believe it. We had scouted a trailer park and even looked at a trailer and we had the contact info and decided it would be fine. It was close to downtown Conway, but not too close. And it was cheap $575 including water. Sean called the landlord and set up our lease signing for the next day. We met the next day and found out that he was not only paying for us to get in, but paying our deposit and three months rent! We signed the lease and then he asked if we had beds to sleep in. We told him we had two queen sized air matresses and he got on the phone with 501 Furniture and ordered a queen sized bed for us and bunk beds for our kids! Then to further amaze me, he took us to the electric co-op and paid our deposit! This took place over the course of just three days! After months of homelessness, we finally had a home! I could barely contain the tears.
**I was quite overwhelmed that there was this federal program that actually helped homeless veterans. **
I wrote my story because I know that there are too many homeless veterans out there who do not know there are programs to help. Out of everything I did, this was the hardest and the most helpful to my family. I had to change my way of thinking and it took a heroic amount of courage to do so. I have always tried to be independant, but I learned that sometimes, you have to swallow your pride and do what is best for yourself and your family. I know that peoples tax money is misspent a lot of the time, but this is an instance of that not being so. If you think there should be a military, you should write that tax check with this story in your heart.

Please, if you know a veteran that is having a hard time with housing, share this with them so they can get help!

ECHO
Sean Scurlock
(843)-213-1798 x111
Cell (843)-957-7378
[email protected]

There is an emergency housing for veterans program in at least one county of every state, so you don't have to move to S.C. But if you do, look me up.
[email protected]
I will help you any way I can. It is the least I can do to stard paying this forward.

Also look into the VASH program where you get a lifetime voucher that makes your rent based on your income. You keep it forever and use it if you need it. This program is at the VA and it is open to all veterans.

Thanks for reading this. I hope it helps someone wether it is to find housing or to show people that your attitude definitly determines your altitude! because we would never have gotten through this without a positive outlook.