The HUD Kentucky Office Public Service Recognition Week Event, which recently featured two very special HUD program participants, was a huge success with employees leaving feeling both moved and appreciated. Two very inspiring ladies spoke about how HUD programs helped them overcome barriers so that they could obtain permanent housing and, most important, keep their families together.
Shameka Parrish-Wright, St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) Homes for Hope participant, explained that the cycle of poverty instilled in her family for generations had left her and her children homeless countless times, despite her being an active community member and a one-time human rights director. “There was no aunt or uncle or other family for me to go to for help,” she explained. “I was from an entire family of poverty and I did not want to ask any of my friends to take on myself and six children and I went to homeless shelters.” So when SVDP enrolled her in a program where she could finally get permanent housing and have a safety net of support she was elated and confused. “You see I hadn’t known what permanent anything was in my life. So, this has been the best thing that has happened to me and the work that you do matters,” she told the HUD staff.
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