Our Stories
Meet Lindsey
At age 72, Lindsey felt like he was finally living the good life. He had moved to Rochester from Lockport to his brother and sister-in-law’s home to assist his brother’s recovery after a knee surgery. It was a comfortable routine; he drove him to physical therapy and dialysis appointments and drove his sister-in-law to work. He also tended to laundry and household chores.
“We cooked together all the time, and sometimes the three of us even went out to dinner or to the casino. We were a small family, and I felt needed, wanted, and loved,” Lindsey recalled.
Meet Jamil
Jamil Porter has experience moving the ball. As a running back for Temple University, the Washington Redskins, Toronto Argonauts, and Amsterdam Admirals, his job was to run the play after the snap and be there for the quarterback handoff, all to help move the football down field.
As a Homeless Outreach & Engagement Specialist with Person Centered Housing Options (PCHO), he still runs the play to help move the ball—in this case, the ball is where life is heading, and the quarterbacks are his clients.
“From the moment I first meet a client I’m always working on that relationship, meeting them wherever they’re at, so when they are ready to come off the street PCHO is there,” Porter said.
Meet Jessica
Jessica, 35, has survived homelessness, addiction, gun violence, and forced prostitution. But today, she is living independently in a supportive environment, receiving treatment for her substance use disorder, and hoping to begin nursing school this fall.
Jessica grew up in a single-parent home in northeast Rochester, with a mother who held down two jobs while trying to hold together her family of five. By the time Jessica was school age, her two older brothers were gone—one incarcerated, the other sent to a residential home for troubled children. Jessica essentially became a mom figure to her younger brother.
Meet Evonne
Evonne, a Housing Stability Coordinator for Person Centered Housing Options, calls her clients the boss. It’s her job is to listen and peel back the layers until it becomes clear what they need to make progress on their stability goals. When they uncover it, that is when the results start coming in.
Doing that work started with peeling back her own layers.
“My childhood was very rocky. My mom did he best to keep us together, but that meant me and my brother alongside her sleeping on friends’ couches, in hallways, and sometimes garages while she was in active addiction. So, when I got to be a teen, that’s what I did — I got into the streets and unhealthy relationships,” Evonne said.
Meet Jessica
Jessica, 35, has survived homelessness, addiction, gun violence, and forced prostitution. But today, she is living independently in a supportive environment, receiving treatment for her substance use disorder, and hoping to begin nursing school this fall.
Jessica grew up in a single-parent home in northeast Rochester, with a mother who held down two jobs while trying to hold together her family of five. By the time Jessica was school age, her two older brothers were gone—one incarcerated, the other sent to a residential home for troubled children. Jessica essentially became a mom figure to her younger brother.
Meet Dean
After Dean settled in Rochester nearly 20 years ago, he worked hard to establish his own business. He enjoyed a comfortable suburban lifestyle with his wife and three daughters and was proud of how far he had come after growing up in a complicated home environment in South Africa with a father who worked tirelessly to make ends meet.
Dean thought that things were going well because, just as his father had worked hard to provide for him, he now was doing the same for his own family. But Dean took his comforts and life for granted; and over time, he lost everything.
Meet Carl
The word many people at Flower City Apartments use to describe Carl is “reserved.” But one suspects that his quiet demeanor might simply reflect the many losses Carl has endured in the past two years—the end of a relationship; the loss of his job; and perhaps most significantly, an involuntary separation from his six children. Today, Carl is patiently rebuilding his life one step at a time; and having a secure, stable place to live has been an important part of his continued recovery.
Meet Stephanie
When a new resident arrives at Person Centered Housing Options’ Flower City Apartments, they meet Peer Advocate Stephanie Forrester. Stepping into her office, they pass through a door covered with taped-on Narcan boxes, condoms, and fentanyl and xylazine test strips. On her desk she keeps a large jar filled with candy and sticks of lip balm. Next, Stephanie hands them their move-in kit (a garbage can, kitchenware, cleaning tools) and lets them know when they can access food pantries, R-Community Bikes, and other partner resources to help smooth their transitions. These are just the first steps Stephanie takes to open the conversation with each resident on the way to building trust.
Meet Lori
Lori spent her days running through the woods and swimming in the creek while growing up the youngest of five on the rural west side of Monroe County. For years her talent and love for singing would take her all over the state performing at festivals, sporting events, and weddings. Becoming a mom to her oldest son Donovan was a joyous event, and she made caring for him her top priority as developmental delays unfolded. Her son’s father was less engaged.
Meet David
When David moved almost an hour away from Rochester to his girlfriend’s home, he was looking forward to their life together, and to their baby on the way. It turned out to be a chaotic household with toxic extended-family relationships. The situation deteriorated even more after his son was born and David was eventually forced to leave.
“It was such a painful time for me when I had to leave my son. I had nothing and was living outside, and I knew I needed to get back to Rochester,” David said.
A phone call to a friend at the House of Mercy, a Rochester shelter for the homeless, resulted in a bus ticket back home that night, and David’s first steps to getting his son back. But then he contracted COVID-19, which led to a three and a half month stay in the hospital, including one month in a coma.
Meet Kaprisha
The terms of Kaprisha’s probation required a valid address, but it wasn’t safe to go back to where she had been living with a boyfriend. Certainly not with her infant son and 3-year-old daughter. The Department of Social Services referred her to the Volunteers of America for housing, and that’s when her intake questionnaire was flagged for PCHO.
The questionnaire screens candidates for high instances of domestic abuse and other factors that contribute to chronic housing instability. Kaprisha’s score was high.
“There were a lot of traumas leading up to where I am now, starting with the loss of my father when I was six. Everything went downhill after that, and everything was a challenge for my mother. It was an unstable childhood, and I saw a lot of things I shouldn’t have,” Kaprisha said.
Meet Joyce
Joyce, a PCHO Housing Stability Coordinator, guides our clients on their path home. Woven into that process are the threads of her experiences over a 25+ year career that has included providing support services to families who navigate trauma, substance use, mental health challenges, and the juvenile justice system. Relationship-building has always been at the center of how Joyce works.
“What has caused their instability? That is where I start with each client. Once the person feels comfortable dropping their guard, that’s when you find out what you need to know to customize a strategy that works for their journey and improves their situation,” Joyce said.
Meet Tiny
Marilyn, a.k.a. “Tiny,” brings a critical element to the PCHO Board of Directors: lived experience.
As a long-time resident of the YWCA Apartments of Rochester and with her own story of circumstances that led to homelessness, Tiny also fulfills the role of being a role model for people who are on their own path to stable housing.
Tiny excels at this because of the decades she spent coping with what she calls the insanity of addiction, including cycles of incarceration and homelessness.
Meet Tiffany
Tiffany’s 23 years in active addiction resulted in many arrests and stints in jail – and many courtroom offers to enter a detox program. Over and over again, she declined to sign on.
“I was looking for that high all the time, in alcohol, crack, a little bit of everything,” Tiffany said. She recalls wanting to keep using, despite knowing addiction was a fatal disease that she had seen take her own loved ones. Even though she was worried about dying out on the streets herself, Tiffany also realizes now that each of those times she declined detox at court appearances was because she was likely ‘too out of it’ to recognize what the opportunity could mean.
Until last summer when she was in court after an arrest on three warrants.
Meet Dean
After Dean settled in Rochester nearly 20 years ago, he worked hard to establish his own business. He enjoyed a comfortable suburban lifestyle with his wife and three daughters and was proud of how far he had come after growing up in a complicated home environment in South Africa with a father who worked tirelessly to make ends meet.
Dean thought that things were going well because, just as his father had worked hard to provide for him, he now was doing the same for his own family. But Dean took his comforts and life for granted; and over time, he lost everything.
Meet Caleb
Caleb had left behind the party drug scene and was making a decent living as a sous chef and bartender. By early 2020, they were living with their partner Beck, who was also working in food service, and using cocaine again. Alcohol addiction fueled by the pressures of working in food service combined with trying crack had already been a drain on their cashflow. The pair’s stability took a further hit from getting sick with Covid-19 and the loss of income from quarantining. Finally, they both lost their jobs due to the pandemic, which led to the loss of their apartment.
“The street drugs this time around had changed,” Caleb said. “We didn’t know it at the time, but everything contained lots of fentanyl and possibly xylazine.”
Meet Ashley
Ashley was seven years clean from opioid addiction, raising her two-year-old son with her husband, and reconnecting with her two older children who live with their grandparents. Working full-time overnight at a gas station helped make ends meet. Then, after being just eight days late with rent one time on a month-to-month lease, her landlord gave the family 30 days to move out.
They went from a duplex apartment to a cramped motel room with no way to cook and with insect infestation. The Department of Social Services through Monroe County supplemented the room fee, but Ashley was still responsible for paying the balance —hundreds of dollars weekly. On top of maintaining the family’s expenses, this made it impossible to save for the down payments on a new apartment.
2023 Impact Report
Whether its new programs, services we provide, success stories and accomplishes, you will find all sorts of ways PCHO impacts our communities. End Homelessness is a paramount goal to PCHO but we are so much more. Our residents and participants rely on us for life saving supplies, advocacy and even support going to the doctors. Check out our impact report today to learn more!