Word on the Street Issue 20, April 2022

Virgil and his son Dylan are guests in Interfaith Sanctuary’s family program.

“I’ve been here for over a year, since October 2020 I believe. I’m here with my son Dylan; he’s autistic. My neighbor set her patio on fire and put 12 units out, right up above us. We were there; it was in the morning. 

That’s how we ended up here basically. Myself and a lot of us here are not here through any fault of our own, just circumstances. 

I could have ended up on the streets with Dylan or he could have been taken from me. This place has really helped. And I knew about it but I didn’t know about it, you know what I mean? It was somebody in the Nampa School District that pointed us in this direction because we were stuck at the Marriott and we didn’t have any more money. 

It has been alright for Dylan here. It has been good. It helps having access to a community, especially the staff. Dylan has favorites – Shannon and Rich.

We had some rough patches at first, but he’s doing alright. He’s going to the school district here now and has adjusted there real quickly. Right now, he’s all about the iPad, which helps calm him down. He likes to watch videos of the freeway.

The VA is helping me look for housing. The staff at Interfaith steered me in the direction of the VA. I never went there for anything. When I left the Navy, all they told me was that there were business and home loans and that’s about it, nothing about medical because I didn’t retire – just, “have a good time.”

When I actually got to talk to some of the people here at the VA, I was like wow, really – there’s a lot out there.”