Patience & Resilience: The Shared Success of Sidney and D’Andre
D’Andre, Oakland Team Member (left) and Sidney, Oakland Case Manager (right) in D’Andre’s new apartment
At Downtown Streets Team our focus is always the success and progress of our Team Members and sharing their stories with our community. However, none of these stories would be possible without the unwavering dedication of our Staff. With this interview we hope to give you an inside look into the challenges our Case Managers face every day as they support our Team Members’ journeys out of homelessness. After almost a decade of being unhoused Oakland Team Member, D’Andre, is housed and has moved into his new home. Sidney, Oakland Case Manager, was alongside D’Andre every step of the way and went above and beyond to not only help him find a home but also all of the essential furniture and supplies he needed to be move-in ready. We celebrate this huge success with the two of them and all of Team Oakland.
Our Team Members are often up against numerous barriers that prevent them from getting into housing or finding employment, what were some of the barriers you had to help D’Andre with to get housing?
Supporting D’Andre has been one of the most interesting and enjoyable experiences for me as a Case Manager. His neurodivergence can sometimes act as a barrier to housing, employment, and even basic interactions. D’Andre has challenges when it comes to executive functions, which can include self-awareness, emotional control, memorization, and more. That’s why it’s my job to advocate for his needs and help others understand his intentions. Being his Case Manager goes beyond filing paperwork, it also means being patient and present in our interactions and ensuring I am supporting his mental and emotional needs as well.
What were some of the bureaucratic hurdles you had to get through to help support D’Andre in this process?
To start off, it was a rare opportunity to be able to apply for a housing voucher. You could even say that D’Andre was lucky enough to have met the criteria for this Emergency Housing Voucher because the eligibility itself can be very specific and tends to filter out tons of folks experiencing homelessness. After finding out that D’Andre was offered this opportunity, the search was on to find a property and landlord that accepted Section-8 vouchers. While they do exist, it was extremely difficult to undergo the eligibility process for this– background and credit checks are a major barrier to housing. Credit checks are an absurd expectation of someone who has been chronically unhoused and in constant survival mode; these folks do not have the physical, mental, or financial ability to build credit in their dire situations. Luckily, I was able to find a lovely couple who were not only open to Section-8 vouchers as landlords, but who were also highly compassionate people and understood the challenges that come along with transitioning into permanent housing after years of experiencing homelessness.
What would you want someone to understand about your role as a Case Manager and the many hats you wear to support our Team Members?
Something that has been proven time and time again is that Case Managers at DST truly go above and beyond what normal case management entails. From an outside perspective, it may look like just completing paperwork, referrals, and resourcing. However, at DST, we show up and support our Team Members physically, mentally, and most importantly, emotionally. It is crucial to our practice that we treat our Team Members with dignity and respect— they become DST family. Some days, my work looks like researching on my laptop for most of the day. Other times, my work involves checking in with my Team Members during their volunteer shifts, over the phone, or in our appointments to make sure their needs are being met. We face many challenges on the daily in our line of work. There are instances where I will need to de-escalate a person or situation in an intense environment, which takes a lot of energy and practice. People who work in direct services, like myself, often endure emotional and mental exhaustion in their day-to-day work.
What has been your biggest takeaway from working with D’Andre?
Patience. One might assume that my biggest takeaway from working with D’Andre was learning how to be patient with D’Andre himself and understanding the way his brain works, but in reality, I had to learn patience around the institutional systems that are involved in housing navigation. The bureaucratic processes of the system itself take a long time, such as waiting weeks for a check to be sent to the landlord; for sure, staff shortages within these systems also contribute to the problem. On several occasions, I have had to wait for over an hour in the phone queue to get ahold of the Social Security Administration, only to be dropped from the queue and hung up on by an automated message. It is things like this that require patience. Yet I have to stay resilient in the face of these barriers to ensure our Team Members have the resources they need.
Many people believe that once someone is housed, their troubles go away and they feel perfectly comfortable in their new home. We know that isn’t always the case and many folks struggle with adjusting to no longer being unhoused. Can you speak to this?
Sometimes, folks get placed in parts of cities or counties that they are not familiar with, so learning new routes and modes of transportation can be a big challenge. With that, there is also the stress of timing new schedules– often a barrier to employment, doctors’ appointments, etc. When experiencing homelessness, sometimes folks are involved in programs or resources that are specific for those that are unhoused. In my observation, it can take time to become aware that these resources are no longer needed once housed. For example, I was tabling at a community resource event for outreach and saw one of my newly housed Team Members going to use the free mobile showers when they already have a private bathroom to themselves now. Adapting to a new physical environment is a huge struggle for some. To go from sleeping on the streets, in a shelter, or in a shed to then having a quiet space to yourself can be very uncomfortable. It may take days or weeks to get used to sleeping in a bed or living alone. Another example is working to avoid hoarding, or even the opposite like not wanting to fill up space for fear of clutter or getting it stolen. Like adapting with any type of change, it takes time and effort to begin feeling comfortable. Part of this process is unlearning certain things to make room for new beginnings. Explaining this to my Team Members in transition can be tricky, but that just gives both of us the opportunity to practice patience.
We want to extend a special thank you to all of the community members who donated household items and furniture to help us ensure D’Andre had everything he needed. Visit our Get Involved page to see how you can help support our work.
