WASHPO: From hopelessness into homes

Go HERE to read the full Washington Post article by Chris Jenkins.

Excerpt:

On Chesapeake Street in Washington Highlands, 10 families this holiday season will move into subsidized apartments, complete with hardwood floors and washer-dryers. Many residents came from a transitional shelter on Minnesota Avenue NE and had been told this month that they would ring in the New Year with a new sense of independence and hope that has eluded them for years.


It's the ultimate present for families that have weathered joblessness, domestic violence and substance abuse. Beander, 40, has her family together and years of PCP and crack use in her rearview mirror. She works part time at a Giant.

"We're stable again," she said. "All that stuff is behind us now."

The apartment building, run by the nonprofit So Others Might Eat (SOME), is filled with people seeking second chances: A father has been reunited with his 16-year-old son after completing a substance abuse program. A mother who endured years of her husband's abuse has settled into the first apartment of her own. A father of two whose job loss spiraled into homelessness will move in next week to take care of his wife and children again under one roof.