Ready to Rent BC
Fighting Homelessness: A Success Story
Opening the doors to housing through education
Meet Sarah Brown (a pseudonym). Sarah found out about the Ready to Rent BC program at Saanich Neighbourhood Place. At the time she and her child were couch surfing, dividing their time between family and friends. Everyone was happy to support Sarah because she had finally left an unhealthy relationship. Before Sarah called it quits, there was a lot of financial stress that ended up with non payment of rent and an eviction.
As part of the Ready to Rent six week program Sarah learned about managing credit and budgeting and really liked the sense of control she felt when writing all her expenses down. She also decided to write a letter of explanation about the events that lead to her eviction and describe why that would not happen in the future. She defined her short and long term goals, and committed to a personal contract. Although there weren’t a lot of housing options in the area, Sarah decided that for her long term goals to be realized it was very important to live close to her family and continue to get their support raising her young son.
Ready to Rent BC caught up with Sarah recently and after an 11 month wait, she was living in a two bedroom subsidized suite just a 20 minute walk from her parents’ home. “They called me and asked me if I wanted the place and I just couldn’t believe it – I cried and cried. The lady told me that my credit was bad and that the only reason I got the place was because of my Ready to Rent certificate. That’s why they decided to take a chance on me and they won’t be sorry!”
Sarah loves her new home and is enjoying finally having her belongings around her. She continues to write out her monthly budget and now that she is finally settled, will be moving forward with her plan to go back to school.
Since our program began in 2009, Ready to Rent BC has worked to empower over 260 graduates and helped hundreds of others with housing related issues. The innovative program is currently available for FREE to all families in the CRD area.
We are grateful for the support from the United Way of Greater Victoria, VanCity Savings Credit Union, Vancouver Foundation, BC Housing and CRD Housing.
For more information contact:
Amy Jaarsma, Board Chairperson
Colleen Kasting, Director
250-388-7171 / kimreadytorent@shaw.ca