Meet Mark: Palo Alto Team Member

Mark has been on Team Palo Alto for over two years now. He is a hard worker and has been very motivated to work with our Case Manager on his goals. His two biggest goals were to obtain SSI benefits and secure, stable housing.

He applied for disability benefits back in August of 2019, and he worked with the Stanford Community Law Clinic and his Case Manager to navigate the long, complex process. He was denied at multiple stages of the process, but luckily his attorney with the law clinic was able to help him successfully appeal these decisions along the way. In mid-2021, he was starting to get very discouraged and almost lost hope that he would ever be approved to receive disability benefits. Right as winter was starting to hit, and Mark was feeling as discouraged as ever, he was finally approved for benefits in November 2021 – over two years after his initial application. In December, he started receiving monthly disability benefits and backpay from the date of his initial application.

In February 2022, we got a call from a property manager of an Alta Housing property in downtown Palo Alto, letting us know that they had a few units coming available and they had run through all the folks on their waitlist. Immediately, with his new income from SSI, Mark came to mind and our Case Manager began working with him to quickly secure the necessary documents. Within a matter of two weeks, Mark was housed in downtown Palo Alto in his very own studio!

Mark is so excited to finally have a home again after years of chronic homelessness. The only reason Mark qualified for their housing was because he had income from SSI, and he was given “preference” status (living/working in Palo Alto) because of his status as one of our Team Members. If he had not yet obtained disability benefits, he would have been locked out from this opportunity, and he would still be homeless. We are so incredibly happy for Mark and he wouldn’t be housed without the intensive support of our staff and our great relationship with this property manager from Alta Housing.

Mark at his new studio apartment!