Josie is excited as she talks about the 3-bedroom house her family now calls home in the Sandpoint area. It’s a fresh start for her, her husband Nick, and their five children, which was made possible thanks to their time at Bonner Homeless Transitions.
It’s a much brighter picture than two years earlier, when the couple found themselves struggling to find a place to stay. Trying to escape past drug problems, the couple moved back to Idaho and sent their oldest son to live with relatives in Arizona. But staying with Josie’s parents wasn’t working out, due to the small house and the struggle to stay clean. The family bounced from hotel to hotel while trying to find a long-term solution for them and their children. Josie put their names on shelter wait lists but wasn’t having much luck.
“There’s not many shelters around here that take families together,” said Josie. “When I called Bonner Homeless Transitions, they had me come in to talk to them and she gave us a place to stay within a month.”
Bonner Homeless Transitions provides more than just a safe place to stay. The couple participated in many of the programs offered at the shelter, including a budgeting program that gave them the tools to start repairing their credit.
“I feel like that helped us a lot with how we should be spending our money and saving it and writing down everything that comes out of our checks. I’m kind of new to being an adult, so that has helped me better understand how to use our money.”
Josie also finished her GED and started classes at a cosmetology school while Nick found a job with a medical equipment manufacturer. Both are two years clean. Now that they have a home they rent, their oldest son is moving back in with them this summer. The couple are now building up their savings in hopes of buying their first home soon.
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