Success In Starting Over

When clients are ready to rebuild their lives, CHRISTUS Our Daily Bread is prepared with the resources to help them succeed.

According to Our Daily Bread’s client navigator Johnathen Vallery, Galveston is one of the hardest places to start over if you have nothing. “The apartments are requiring you to have two to three times the rent in income. The majority of the jobs in Galveston are retail, hospitality, and fast food, and you have to have two to three of those jobs to make the rent down here.”

For those ready to secure housing, Vallery will work with clients to assess their income, and if they are working or not. “Then I will tell them which way to go. For some of them, their income is so low that their only choice is to get in with the Galveston Housing Authority and the Tennant-Based Rental program.” Vallery will submit an application, and then the client will be placed on a waiting list. “The client will be responsible for finding an apartment, and the city will pay the majority of the rent, like 80 percent. It is only for one year though and is designed to help clients save the money they would have been spending on rent.”

Our Daily Bread is finding positive outcomes when clients are re-housed. “Nine times out of ten when they leave, they’re gone,” said Vallery. “Sometimes I will see them in public. One time, I was out, and I hear a scream. This woman came running to me and asked if it was me, the guy from Galveston and Our Daily Bread. She told her new boyfriend how Our Daily Bread helped her family. She had shown up to Our Daily Bread with her seven kids. I came from behind the counter and wanted to know where the kids were sleeping. I said if it was on the street, it would not be another day. These client stories are the reason why I come back every day.”