Tobi

Tobi in his apartment with his cat

The Struggles of Homelessness

Tobi found himself homeless when he split up with his partner and had to move out of the place they shared. Without anywhere to go, a friend gave him a few hundred dollars to temporarily stay in a hotel while working and looking for a new place. A week turned into a month and then one month turned into several.

He consistently worked, but couldn’t get far enough ahead once he paid for the hotel room, food, and his other bills. Even working two jobs, Tobi said, “I still couldn’t keep up with everything and I didn’t qualify for any help, not even food stamps. I really felt like at any moment I was going to be on the streets with nothing.”

Tobi didn’t feel safe on the hotel grounds or walking to and from work. He worried about people following him to his room, and other guests at the hotel had made threatening remarks to him. Not only did Tobi feel unsafe in the small hotel room, but it was rarely cleaned and not well maintained.

He said, “At one point there were two different infestations with pests. One was ants all over the bathroom. It seemed like they were coming from the room beside me and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get them to stop. The other was roaches, there were so many cockroaches. I couldn’t get them to stop.”

When looking back on that time, Tobi said, “I would be panicking everyday because I couldn’t afford to live or eat. I would do whatever I could, but I couldn’t get ahead. I was often behind on my payments at the hotel and was scared what the next day would be like. I hit a rock bottom part of my life. I had been through a lot of hell in my life, but nothing prepared me for the trauma of being homeless.”

A Turning Point: Guaranteed Income

The day we met, Tobi knew he’d been referred to some sort of guaranteed income program, but possessed only a vague idea of what it entailed.

He said, “I had researched what guaranteed income was, but of course it was a new project and nothing online could tell me how much money it was going to be, but I was hoping it would at least be something that at the very least could help me get ahead if nothing else.”

When I told Tobi about the project and that we would give him $5,000, he put his head in his hands and said, “Just the other day, I said to myself ‘I know I could get my feet underneath me if I only had $5,000.’” And then he did.

Just a week later, Tobi received word that an apartment complex that had put him on their waiting list had an opening, and he could move in on the 15th. He was constantly working so he had little time to pack, but that hot summer day I drove over in our organization’s mini-van, and together we loaded up his stuff and got him into his new place.

Tobi wrote about that day, “I remember pulling away from the hotel and I looked at John and said, ‘I never thought I was getting out of there.’ And watched as I would never have to go up that road again or see that building again.”

Not only did he get out of there, but over a year later, Tobi still lives in that apartment that we moved him into.

A New Opportunity

Now Tobi works for Held as our first ever Participant Support Specialist. For the next year, he will walk alongside each person receiving guaranteed income from Held.

Almost one year to the day of Tobi moving out of the hotel and into his apartment, I picked him up and we drove across town back to Triad Goodwill.

We got there and told the woman working at the front desk that we had an appointment with a Career Navigator named Amanda and her client named David, whose name I’ve changed at his request. She directed us back to the same small classroom in which Tobi first learned he would receive his guaranteed income. We sat and waited.

A few minutes later, Amanda and David joined us. Like Tobi a year ago, David was homeless. At only 19, he’d lived on the streets for just three months after his parents kicked him out of the house because of his transgender identity.

He came to Greensboro to stay with some friends, but that didn’t work out and he was working regularly just trying to get enough to get into a place. Goodwill had enrolled him in a rehousing program, and he was waiting on a place to open up. I explained the ins and outs of guaranteed income to David, got him setup with the debit card with his funds on it, and had him sign all the necessary paperwork to enter the program.

“And now I’ll let Tobi tell you a bit about his role here. The cool thing is that Tobi has very literally sat in the same chair you’re sitting in now. About a year ago, Tobi was homeless and was referred to a program to receive $5,000 with no strings attached so he knows what it’s like to receive the kind of help you’re getting. He wants to make sure you have a great experience and get to where you need to go.”

Tobi went on to explain that he was there to support David in whatever his goals might be and help him with any challenges he may experience. “My job is to be your first point of contact so let me get you my number and email.

If you have any issues, you reach out to me, and if I can’t help, I’ll get John on it right away.” They exchanged numbers and had already begun texting one another by the time I got Tobi back to his apartment. Tobi and David had an immediate connection over their shared love of video games.

We repeated this process with three other people over the course of the next week, and each time, Tobi grew more confident in his role and in explaining it to the people in the project.

Thus far he has fielded calls with specific questions about the income, community resources available, and has been a listening ear as one participant dealt with the unexpected death of someone significant in their life.

I couldn’t have made a better choice for our Participant Support Specialist.

I recently asked Tobi what he likes about working for Held and he said, “What I enjoy most is getting to help people. I have always wanted to be in a position that helped people in some way and getting to be in a position where I get to help people in the same way I was helped during my hardest time is something I am deeply appreciative of that I get to take part in.”

That feeling of appreciation is most certainly mutual.