Awesome!!! I hope you and your staff had your Wheaties this morning !! :) Enjoy resting this weekend.

Our kids are in.....its nice to have multiple landlords to work with these days. There are both benefits and drawbacks to operating scattered site models, but, I'm convinced that the benefits outweigh the challenges for our size city and our local housing market.

Well, here's the update on those kids who moved in back in March 2009:

Client 1: Pretty much smooth sailing the whole way through. He has two part-time jobs that have him working an average of 60 hours per week. We're actually discharging him this month as he has completed all program components and is in a position to be able to maintain his housing on his own. He is saving to buy a car, but has a bike for now, which he rides to and from his jobs.

Client 2: This young lady allowed a boyfriend to "visit" a little too often right off the bat. We have a policy where the client must request overnight guests in their apartment (which she did follow). The overnight guest was the father of her child and we try to encourage parental involvement/support where appropriate depending on the circumstances. Apparently, these visits became too frequent and noise violations were reported by neighbors. The landlord contacted us and we made efforts to address the situation with the client. We revoked "visiting privileges" in the apartment. The client continued to allow visits to the apartment which lead to more complaints by the neighbors and ultimately, we had to remove the client from the apartment. This occurred in the second month in the program. The young lady was able to move in with her mother, whom she had been estranged from. We had to remove the furniture from the apartment and recycled some of it for other clients. This is one of the biggest challenges when operating Scattered Site Apartment Programs (monitoring visitors that is). Many times the kids have friends and family who are on the streets and have often assisted them in many ways when they too (our clients) were homeless or couch surfing. There is a sense of obligation to assist them (their friends/family) now that they are in housing. We work with them to develop the refusal skills to avoid this as we know that it often leads to difficulty for our clients to maintain their housing and that they are violating the terms of the lease. This is an ongoing challenge that will likely never be completely avoidable.

Client 3: This client was pregnant when she entered the program. Unfortunately, two months into her entrance and move into her apartment, she had a miscarriage. She was very distraught and we connected her with appropriate counseling/support. The fortunate part of the situation is that she has maintained her employment and housing without missing a beat. She has been stable on her job for nearly a year now and she has achieved nearly all programmatic goals. She is a very motivated and responsible young lady and has transcended multiple barriers in her life.

Client 4: This young lady has also done extremely well considering where she was when we became involved with her. She was living on the streets and in shelters for several years prior to entering our program. To date she has maintained her apartment and has completed a job training program. Unfortunately she recently lost her job due to a layoff resulting from downsizing at the company she was working for. She is currently seeking employment with the assistance of staff members and is pounding the pavement like a trooper. Our program has assisted with her utilities and has been very involved with her so that she does not get discouraged. We are hopeful that she will be able to obtain a new job soon.

That sounds great!