Mrs. D works full time at a local hospital earning about $43,000 per year. She now earns less than she earned last year because she had been working overtime hours that are no longer available.  Her husband is disabled and unable to work.  Together, their income is about 55% of the area median income.  They currently rent an apartment in New Haven where they were raising their two children. 

Kyra, a 16 year-old teenage parent, had a 1 year-old daughter. Kyra lived with her mother, who was using drugs and was physically abusive. When Kyra arrived at school with bruises resulting from her mother’s abuse, Student Parenting and Family Services notified DCF and helped Kyra contact a family friend who agreed to let Kyra and her daughter stay in her apartment temporarily. 
 

CJ was a hard-working father who took good care of his home and family. He lived in an apartment with his girlfriend and their son and took pride in sharing all expenses for maintaining their apartment. Then one day CJ’s girlfriend left, leaving their son in his care. CJ was forced to take time off from work, without pay, in order to find daycare for his son. Daycare issues also forced him to go from full-time to part-time work, with the accompanying loss in income.

Mrs. A. is an elderly and low-income homeowner  in Hamden.  She lives there with her daughter who is also her caregiver.  She is unable to walk up and down her front steps and needed a ramp installed in order to get out of the house and to her doctor’s appointments, but she did not have the income or savings to pay for it.  The Agency on Aging of South Central CT’s Nursing Home Diversion program paid for part of the project, but requested our help when they ran out of funding to complete the installation.  The ramp will allow Mrs.

The Big Shop at IRIS
 
When I was a child, my mother told me that food is love. I grew up appreciating food—and meals shared with family and friends—as something that offers safety, comfort, and peace. For refugees—displaced people, many of whom are war victims—eating good, fresh food in peace means...a lot.
 

Clara* came to us through the Resident Services Coordinator in the property in which she lives.  It had come to their attention that she was having difficulty paying her rent after having lost her job and recieving only $50 a week in unemployment.

Paying a month of her rent was fairly simple, but we didn't stop there.  We were able to connect Clara* with the services she so desperately needed, including clinical, vocational and case management. 

Charlie* came to us struggling with depression.  He was receiving the basic of Social Security Disability and his wife was looking at unemployment as her job in the school system was coming to a close for the summer.  He has two teenage children and he was having difficulty facing the prospect of not being able to provide for them.

Mrs. Mary Johnson is a recovering addict who has had problems trying to stay clean.  Shehas been clean 6 months.   Mrs. Johnson is married and lives with her 61 yr old husband and 8 month old child.  She was released from jail in March and came to our agency looking for any help she could obtain in order to provide for her family.  She is unemployed and the only source of income is her husband who works part-time. They found themselves struggling to make ends meet.

Sometimes everything falls into place.  Without the emergency housing support that AIDS Project New Haven (APNH) received from Neighbor-to-Neighbor Lifeline Anna* would be homeless.  For years Anna struggled with substance abuse that had at times put her at risk of becoming homeless.  Anna worked closely with her case manager and substance abuse counselor at APNH and recently shared that she when she attempted to pay her rent with a money order she discovered she was more seriously in arrears tha