Velez is a policy coordinating committee member for the San Diego Housing Federation’s Homeless Experienced Advocacy and Leadership Network and a member of Residents United Network San Diego. She currently lives in a hotel in Mission Valley.
My experience being unsheltered began about 10 years ago. As a store associate working for the 32nd Street Naval Station commissary, I made around $16 an hour. I was supporting two teen daughters, one of whom had a serious congenital heart defect, so there was barely enough to live on.
The company that managed the complex we lived in was planning to remodel all the building’s units and evicted us. As a result, we ended up in a homeless shelter, I did not want my daughters exposed to the drugs and health hazards — such as food poisoning, head lice and bed bugs — which impacted us daily there.
Advertisem*nt
For the first time, I was unhoused and felt like a “blind spot,” someone who doesn’t fit into a certain category for housing assistance. I’m not a veteran, a domestic violence victim or a refugee, so I don’t fit any of the criteria for aid, which is very frustrating.
So we decided to take our chances on the streets, where we lived for two years. The biggest challenges of being unhoused? Your safety is threatened. Your hygiene is challenged. Your diet is restricted — especially if you need a special diet for health issues, which my daughters and I require. Housing is vital for your physical and mental health.
One day, when I was living with my daughters in the stairwell of a hotel under renovation, I decided I had had enough, and began my fight for housing. Eventually, I was able to save enough money to rent a U-Haul, where we lived until I could save enough for the first month’s rent and security deposit — always a challenge for someone with a limited income.
Eventually, we found housing. It was not in an ideal area, because it did not feel entirely safe, but we finally had a real roof over our heads. My neighbor at the time encouraged me to attend a meeting of an organization that was the precursor to RUN (Residents United Network) San Diego — which organizes support strategies that bring more affordable homes locally and statewide. When I joined the organization, I didn’t know the difference between a Senate and an Assembly bill, but now I understand the real difference good housing laws can make.
I later became involved with the San Diego Housing Federation’s Homeless-Experienced Advocacy and Leadership (HEAL) Network, designed to amplify the voices of individuals with lived experience of homelessness. By participating in the network, I hope to move public policies toward strategies that are more focused on the individuals who are impacted by this crisis. As someone who continues to experience homelessness firsthand, I understand just how important stable housing is. In my current role, I can publicly and proactively advocate for affordable housing by speaking at public engagements, council meetings and other events.
My efforts paid off for our family. Last year, we were offered a home in Barrio Logan at a very affordable rate. By this time, I was living with my two youngest daughters and a grandbaby.
Sadly, as is all too common, our attempt at permanent housing was short-lived. In January of this year, the floods came and once again we — along with more than 1,200 other San Diegans — were displaced. Fortunately, we are now in a program for flood victims that pays for our hotel stay. But the program ends June 21.
We continue to live paycheck to paycheck. My oldest daughter cannot work due to her health condition, my younger daughter just got a job at Food 4 Less and I care for my grandchild. This city continues to price working people like me out of the market. Survival in San Diego is especially tough when you consider that the average rent here can be nearly three times a person’s wages.
But I remain optimistic. Despite the many challenges, I will continue my relentless search for appropriate housing — and through my work with the San Diego Housing Federation’s Homeless-Experienced Advocacy and Leadership Network and Residents United Network San Diego, advocate for those like me.
