SLO jazz singer finds housing after enduring 2 years of homelessness
When Deborah Gilmore began her journey through homelessness over two and a half years ago, one of her first steps was to reconnect with her love of music.
That love of music, combined with hard work and talent, saw Gilmore through some of the most difficult parts of her time on the streets, she said.
And it has helped lift her out of housing uncertainty and into a steady home.
Gilmore said she relied on her skills as a jazz singer to keep herself fed and a series of motel room roofs over her head between the start of 2020 and September 2022, culminating in the signing of a lease on an Atascadero apartment.
The journey to housing was hardly a straight path, Gilmore said. Now, she is focused on returning to relative normalcy after two tumultuous years.
“Now that I’m here, I have to heal,” Gilmore said. “’How do I heal?’ is the question every day. What is required of my body to heal?”
How 100 shows translated to housing
During Gilmore’s two years on the streets, she frequented San Luis Obispo’s downtown businesses, often hurrying from meeting to meeting with flyers and bags in her arms.
Thanks to those meetings, Gilmore said by the time she had gained housing in September, around 40 local businesses had agreed to sponsor her in one way or another.
Some of these sponsorships entailed hosting Gilmore and her band of professional and amateur musicians from Cal Poly for performances, while others were financial donations that bought advertising spots on Gilmore’s advertisements and programs for her performances.
Between sponsorships and Gilmore’s GoFundMe page, she said she was grateful for the support of so many of SLO County’s businesses and patrons.
“You don’t want to know exactly how much money I have been given — an unbelievable amount,” Gilmore said. “I mean, it’s surreal, but most of them went to hotel.”
Living on the street or staying in a shelter, Gilmore said, “wasn’t an option,” so she used the funding to keep herself housed at hotels or motels across the county.
However, much like renting a home rather than purchasing it, Gilmore said these living arrangements often provided only short-term stability at the price of long-term savings.
Gilmore’s stay on the streets had a shot at ending in August 2021, when she was given a housing voucher, but after the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo (HASLO) “dropped the ball,” Gilmore lost the opportunity to get out of homelessness.
That voucher would come back to Gilmore eventually, though, when SLO Mayor Erica Stewart provided some help navigating the HASLO system.
Stewart met Gilmore during the start of social distancing measures, when Gilmore was performing outdoors on the street.
“When I heard how talented she was, and learned that she was homeless, I just thought, there’s gotta be something that can be done,” Stewart said.
Stewart said Gilmore gives her too much credit for her role in navigating the voucher problem, but was glad to help Gilmore identify the parts of the system she may have gotten stuck on.
“At the (SLO City) Council, we’re constantly looking at how we get more low-income housing, how we get more affordable housing,” Stewart said. “When I hear people say, ‘I’ve been on a waitlist for two years, or I have a voucher, but no one will rent to me,’ then it brings me pause when we’re trying to make these policies to help create more housing, because if people are out there with vouchers and can’t use them, that’s the problem.”
With a voucher in hand, Gilmore said she found her new home through a recommendation from one of her sponsors.
Happy to find a place that would accept the voucher, Gilmore said she received a good first impression from her new apartment.
“I stepped through the door, and it’s navy blue, my favorite color,” Gilmore said. “When I opened the door, I said, ‘This has gotta be a good sign, right?’”
Adjusting to housing brings peace, mental adjustments
With a roof over her head, Gilmore said she’s dealing with far less stress on a daily level.
But with the safety and security of having a home comes the responsibilities of daily upkeep — stresses Gilmore said she hasn’t had to deal with over the last couple years.
“Now that I’m inside, I get to do two years of laundry,” Gilmore said. “Now, I’m feeling overwhelmed — I’m backlogged.”
Gilmore said many of her boxes are still unopened since her move, as the task of getting her home set up can be daunting.
That’s not helped by the location of her Atascadero apartment, she said, which is removed from most of her music and business connections in SLO. Without a car, Gilmore still relies on buses to get around the county, which adds to her transportation time and costs.
“Every day, I go (back to) my house, and I’m too tired to go through the boxes,” Gilmore said. “I was supposed to be in a state of healing, (but) when I get home, from still being out all day, walking around doing my normal work, I’m farther out, now, I’m taking another bus, I’m walking a half a mile home, it’s dark in the evening, I want to get in and eat, and I really just want to go to sleep now.”
However, despite those daily struggles with adapting to life in a home of her own, Gilmore has gained “a sense of peace” from knowing she won’t have to find a new place to stay every day.
Gilmore said the compassion of others to trust and work with a stranger was what kept her afloat during the most stressful times of her homelessness.
“I don’t believe this (idea that) you have to go through something to be compassionate,” Gilmore said. “One does not have to go through homelessness to have compassion. You just need to have an open mind and an open heart and know what is happening in someone’s world.”
What’s next for her?
Though she’s permanently housed now, Gilmore said she intends to continue her career as a singer, and expand the reach of her music.
Gilmore is still playing events locally — including her Christmas show Dec. 14 at The Penny in SLO — but hopes to eventually move up to bigger venues.
With more free time on her hands, Gilmore said she’s looking into enrolling at Cuesta College sometime in the near future, with the intent of pursuing a culinary arts degree.
Cuesta also features several choirs, which Gilmore said she wants to join.
Visiting Paris, could go hand-in-hand with joining one of Cuesta’s choirs, which she said may travel there next year.
“Each show brings on different musicians, which is kind of cool,” Gilmore said. “It means I can go to Paris, (I’ll) take my laptop with all my charts and hire whoever. If they can read music, we’re good to go.”
Gilmore said she hopes her success story of navigating homelessness with hard work will be an inspiration to others in her situation.
“I want my story to resonate with people that don’t understand homelessness, and have more compassion,” Gilmore said. ”There is not enough compassion in this country for homelessness.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
