A single mom and her teenage daughter got the keys to their very own home Tuesday after spending months in a homeless shelter.
Health care worker Quanta Anthony fell on hard times after her parents died. She got the news Monday she qualified for a new home through a voucher program offered by the D.C. government.
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“Oh my gosh, I’ve been walking on air since yesterday,” she said. “I can breathe a sigh of relief.”
She’s relieved to move out of the shelter during the middle of a deadly pandemic.
“I felt very vulnerable as a family, honestly … and yes, there were cases,” she said.
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She signed the lease to her new home Monday morning.
Like many homeless people, Anthony has a job but still was unable to make ends meet after tragedy struck her family.
“After losing both my parents last year within a three-month period, it was certainly emotionally and as well as financially challenging and we found ourselves homeless, and I’m a working person,” she said. “I call it working poor where your wages aren’t enough to sustain you in the city.”
Anthony and her daughter are just one of hundreds of families who will be placed in their own homes this holiday season as part of the D.C. Department of Human Services program A Home for the Holidays.
While Anthony is excited about celebrating the holidays in her own home, she’s really looking forward to going to bed Tuesday night.
“I really miss my parents and I have to say I inherited my mother’s bed and the biggest thing I’m looking forward to is sleeping in it tonight,” she said.
I call it working poor, where your wages aren’t enough to sustain you in the city.
Quanta Anthony
The District is looking for more landlords to participate in the program.
“It is just so wonderful to be able to have keys again, something as simple as having keys,” Anthony said.
D.C. hopes to move 500 households from shelters to homes by Jan. 15.
To help by donating household items for these families or if you’re a landlord interested in participating, contact the D.C. Department of Human Services.
