A two-week trip to the hospital quickly took a turn for the worst five months ago.
“It’s one thing after another,” Scotty Cantrell said.
Cantrell had a long battle with COVID and flulike symptoms that eventually caused his kidneys to decline, so doctors told him he would have to start dialysis.
“In that process, I missed work and I was late paying rent. I was two weeks to a month behind. The landlord decided to kick us out,” Cantrell added. “It was either pay my rent and my LG&E gets shut off, or I pay my LG&E bill and get behind on my rent.”
Cantrell and his 7-year-old daughter, Jazzy, were evicted from his Louisville apartment. He paid $900 in application fees searching for another place to live, but no one would accept his Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher with an eviction on his record.
“Nobody would work with me … and they didn’t care how I got the eviction,” he said.
He and his daughter had to stay at Wayside Christian Mission and Volunteers of America for the next four months.
During that time, Cantrell had four kidney-related procedures and now goes to dialysis on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. He has additional appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays and also works part-time as a security guard at Securitas, where he’s been for seven years. Thankfully, as a single father, Cantrell’s mother watches Jazzy when she’s out of school.
During their time at the VOA, they were referred to St. Vincent de Paul Louisville.
Coming Home
In late June, Cantrell and his daughter moved into DePaul Apartments, which offers 12 fully furnished, two-bedroom apartments to families who are homeless and in need of permanent supportive housing.
“I pretty much fell in love with the apartment when I first moved in here,” Cantrell said.
There’s a reason for that. We don’t just want to house people; we want to give them a place they can call home.
The apartment that Cantrell and his daughter moved into happened to be completely refurbished because of a fire at DePaul Apartments on the evening of Aug. 3, 2022.
“Mr. Cantrell has been looking forward to having this apartment,” said Douglas Vasquez, Cantrell’s Case Manager. “He can tell the care that was placed in restoring the unit. He told me, ‘I wouldn’t have been able to guess that there was a fire in this room.’”
The restoration work was not easy, nor fast, but it is done. And it was done above and beyond expectations.
“(Director of Facilities and Maintenance) Michael Smith and the rest of the team, in collaboration with our partners at SERVPRO and our insurance companies, worked hard to restore that apartment,” said Jennifer Clark, SVDP’s Chief Operating Officer. “It looks amazing. The bar has been raised. We want to gradually update all of our apartments to look modern and fresh.”
Finding Stability
Author Matthew Desmond writes, “The home is the center of life … When people have a place to live, they become better parents, workers, and citizens.”
We want everyone—single parents, children, veterans, seniors, volunteer groups, or high school students—to feel like they’re at home when they step foot on our campus.
“Mr. Cantrell’s desire to have a stable location for his daughter was something that he prided himself in, and, after joining us, he couldn’t be happier,” Vasquez added.
Jazzy says her stay at SVDP has been “good.” She loves to play outside at the playground next to the apartments and is excited to join in the Family Success Center’s after-school programming.
“Everybody here is nice … Jazzy has friends here. She knows one of the girls from her school at Engelhard Elementary. It’s convenient,” Cantrell said.
Jazzy, who also has kidney issues, has doctor appointments downtown that are all within walking distance.
DePaul Apartments, which opened in 1988, is located on South Preston St. The apartments are specifically for parents with one or two children. Clients pay up to 30% of their income towards rent. SVDP covers utilities, furniture, and pest control for these units. Each family is provided with case management services.
Cantrell sees a transplant team this month to get on the kidney transplant waiting list. If you’re interested in helping, visit https://uoflhealth.org/services/living-kidney-donor-transplant-program/.
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