WE FIND A HOME

I looked all over, and found this sign on Maple. I called the number and spoke to the manager and asked him the details. I went back and told the shelter about it and gave them all the details. They thought it sounded OK.

They spoke with the manager and I went them with the next day to see it. I liked it, so they helped me complete the lease and we all moved in here. The shelter paid a 2-month deposit so it would not be so easy to evict us. They warned us not to lose the lease, to treat it like my birth certificate.

The next week we got prepared to move. They had us do all our laundry and we got ready to move. The shelter brought us to the apartment and gave us all our saved money.

They said we had to pay every month. Remember, if you don’t pay, you will end up on the street again. You have to stay strong for your children. They said the way our previous landlady scared us was not right, it was illegal. If anything else happened that we should call them for help.

But I don’t like to go back there. My husband says, “Why should we? I am working and supporting the family now.” He has been in and out of work and now I am starting a business selling fruit. I sell peanuts, bananas and oranges. A lady I met is showing me the business. We have to find a way to pay the bills.

WHY DO WE STAY HERE?

When I first came, the coyote brought me to this city. I want to say that I still did not want to go back to Guatemala even after all of this. My children were born here and I’m going to stay here for the future of my children. I don’t want them to go back to Guatemala because life is so difficult there. There is no future for them there. Here we have help. They have schools and if they get sick they have Medi-Cal. In Guatemala we are so sad without help. If you get sick no one helps. There is no work for us in Guatemala.