‘I have a lot of fear.’ How one SLO County woman nearly fell back into homelessness again
When Denise Flores finally got a roof over her head after around five years of homelessness in 2022, it was supposed to be the end of her troubles with housing.
Flores, 61, saw her life upended in 2017, when her husband died of a drug overdose. His substance abuse and dysfunction within their relationship caused Flores to lose her housing, she said.
Flores previously spoke to The Tribune about the hardships she faced while living unsheltered in San Luis Obispo in April 2022. Her homelessness journey would end just two months later — or so she thought.
In June 2022, she was able to secure housing for herself in Atascadero, under a Section 8 housing voucher. In the year after, however, Flores said her relationship with the property’s landlord deteriorated for reasons she didn’t understand.
With only two months left on her lease in June of this year, Flores was not offered an option to renew, forcing her to find a new landlord that would accept her Section 8 voucher or return to the streets.
“I have a lot of fear, because it’s hard and I’m older now and I have some physical stuff I’m dealing with,” Flores told The Tribune. “This should not have happened to me — it should not happen to anybody.”
SLO County woman’s subsidized housing lease not renewed
Flores said her life has been full of difficulties she’s had to overcome, from her childhood in and out of group homes and juvenile detention to abusive relationships in adulthood.
Most recently, housing has been the main source of instability in Flores’ life.
Like many individuals and families who receive Section 8 housing vouchers, Flores said she moved into her unit in Atascadero out of necessity, not choice.
She is unable to work due to a disability and is on a fixed income of Social Security and disability benefits. While the Section 8 voucher Flores received from the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo County (HASLO) subsidizes her housing so that her cost is capped at at 30% of her income, she still has limited resources to cover all of her other expenses, such as food, transportation and basic costs of living, she said.
At the time, she was glad to have a roof over her head, but she began to notice problems with the unit almost immediately, she said.
The windows were poorly set into the walls and could not keep the apartment sealed from the elements, and the walls themselves weren’t well insulated against warm and cold conditions. This became more of an issue during the winter storms early this year when the walls began to mold and crack from the intense changes in heat and humidity, she said.
During the worst nights of the storms, Flores said staying in her unit was “like sleeping outside with a roof over my head.”
Flores said she requested a visit from a code inspector, who in turn recommended several repairs to the landlord. Flores said she felt this request for repairs may have soured her relationship with the landlord.
In her year living in the unit, Flores said the only people she ever invited to her home were the landlord and the code inspector, and she never got any indication she was doing anything wrong as a tenant.
Flores did not share her landlord’s contact information with The Tribune due to privacy concerns.
Data: Almost a quarter who receive subsidized housing return to homelessness
Mark Lamore, director of mental illness and housing support nonprofit Transitions-Mental Health Association, said the majority of formerly homeless people who return to the street after being housed do so voluntarily.
This is often spurred by the shock of an abrupt lifestyle change, Lamore said.
“(For) somebody who’s been chronically homeless for 18 years, being on the street is not too scary,” Lamore said. “They’ll come in and they’re not quite ready.”
Among TMHA’s clientele, this usually happens once or twice each year, Lamore said.
According to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness’ Statewide Homelessness Assessment, between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2021, around 17% of those served by homeless service providers across the state — some 96,432 people — exited the care of homeless service providers.
About 38,816 people no longer needed services due to finding interim housing, but around 57,616 people left the system to return to sheltered or unsheltered homelessness, the assessment found.
The Statewide Homelessness Assessment also found around 22.6% of recipients of subsidized housing returned to homelessness after moving in. Formerly homeless individuals who moved in with family or friends returned to homelessness at a slightly lower rate of 16.5%, the report found.
Lamore said individuals who return to homelessness often have a good shot at getting into housing programs, provided they stay committed to avoiding the mistakes that lost them housing in the first place.
For many clients, those choices often involve substance abuse issues, he said.
“It’s pretty easy to establish that trust again, because the person has made that repair, and we can meet with them,” Lamore said. “(That) generally is why you lose communication or lose trust — there’s a substance abuse issue, and you’re just not able to make good decisions at that point.”
Scott Collins, executive director of HASLO, said relationships between landlords and formerly homeless tenants can sometimes be hard to navigate due to existing stigmas surrounding Section 8 recipients.
“You can’t deny someone outright because they’re on Section 8, but you still as a landlord have the ability to run background checks and look at prior potential evictions and those kinds of things,” Collins said.
Despite that, Collins said, “It’s not common for people to fall out of favor of their landlord.”
Those stigmas — along with San Luis Obispo County’s “exorbitant” rents — can sometimes leave Section 8 voucher recipients with subpar housing options to choose from, Collins said.
In Flores’ case, Collins said the non-renewal of the lease did allow Flores to retain her voucher, which she would have lost had she been evicted instead.
Flores also does not have a history of substance abuse, mental health problems or prior evictions, which Collins said are some of the main problems that can hurt landlord relations or drive clients back onto the streets.
Collins said HASLO and other housing providers often try to provide post-housing support for formerly homeless individuals, including conflict resolution between landlords and tenants and financial aid for struggling voucher holders.
While there are plenty of ways to fall into homelessness, its difficult and expensive to get out for both the client and homeless service provider, he said.
“While there has been a great focus on purchasing emergency shelters as well as building permanent housing, keeping people out of (homelessness) will save thousands of dollars for each individual,” Collins said.
SLO County woman finds last-minute housing, but needs a car
Flores was able to narrowly avert becoming homeless at the end of June by signing a 12-month lease for a brand-new unit at a People’s Self-Help Housing senior housing complex in Templeton.
While she is grateful to keep a roof over her head, Flores said this desperation move placed her in yet another tenuous situation.
Because she doesn’t own a car and has little savings or income, Flores said she’s unable to move around town. In her new apartment in Templeton, she lives about two miles from the nearest grocery store.
Flores said that will become a more significant problem as the summer heats up, and will be the next hurdle she has to overcome.
Flores is fundraising on GoFundMe to get a car, which she said will make her situation in Templeton more stable. As of Monday, she has raised $100 of her $5,000 goal.
If she’s able to make living in Templeton work, Flores said she hopes to find ways to contribute with local homeless outreach organizations, using her own struggles on the streets and in maintaining housing post-homelessness to help others.
“This is not the end of the line for me, even though it looks like it could be,” Flores said. “I can relate to certain people about things, and I have a heart for people.”
This story was originally published July 4, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
