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I was born into poverty so I did grow up
in um that situation. So I had to grow up
really quick and I got through that. I
had a bachelor's degree in fine arts but
then I uh was in a 20-year marriage that
was uh abusive in some ways. Um I did
have two great children. I did divorce. He
managed to leave me with nothing, no
money at all. So I had to raise the kids
back in poverty, back on food stamps. My
youngest uh left the
house to go to college. Literally the
week we drove him to college everything
finally completely fell apart. Cause I had
so many financial problems I could never
afford
rent. Halloween I had to start living in
my car. I lived there for 10
months. The second night was 14 degrees and I
had a week to prepare with no money for
this. Um and then the I did drive Uber
Eats to make money with the car, and then
my car um broke down and I no longer had
money to fix it last summer so that
forced me into
shelters. Gateway for for a few different
reasons, um made it possible for me to
actually like succeed and get out of
homelessness. For me what was very
important that I hadn't had for a year
and a half was
privacy. Uh having your own own little
space, and having a little curtain as a
door that was everything to
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me. Well Gateway helped me um fill out
housing applications. Gave me dignity.
Gave me um a
bathroom, a shower, um Regular meals which
helped a lot uh because that made me uh
made me healthy. I now have a full-time
job. I've been approved for an apartment
but
Gateway has finally gotten me to where I
needed to be.
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