“I literally wouldn’t be here without them,” Kadija Huggins said. St. Vincent de Paul’Turkey’s first permanent supportive housing project House of Commonsand the services he found there.

Huggins, who lived in the House of Commons from January to August, was living in the west Santa Rosa apartment he moved into a few weeks ago.

Huggins found herself homeless on the streets of Santa Rosa last year after fleeing domestic violence in her hometown of Sacramento and spending three months in a domestic violence shelter. Case manager Kimberly Luis of The Commons found him living in a tent on a trail near downtown.

Huggins, 27, qualified for the Commons and Luis said he would help her get in, but it wasn’t open yet. So for several months Huggins ended up at Sam Jones Hall, the North Bay’s largest emergency homeless shelter.

“It was scary,” Huggins said. But in January, with a housing voucher in hand, he moved into the newly opened Chamber 13 of the House of Commons.

“It was just like a breath of fresh air,” he said. “You know, many people are ungrateful. They’ll complain, ‘Oh, it’s a small studio.’ “I thought, ‘This is great because it’s not outside in a tent.'”

But after meeting her boyfriend and getting pregnant, Huggins decided she didn’t want to raise a child on The Commons. St. Louis to terminate the lease and find another residence. worked with Vincent de Paul officials; The charity gave him money in exchange for a deposit.

She is now working, too, after case managers at The Commons helped her obtain state certification to provide in-home support services. Today she is six months pregnant and enjoying her new apartment so much that she almost never wants to leave it.

“They were helpful with everything. They were emotional support. Whatever I needed, they were always there,” he said of the Commons staff.

Reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or [email protected]. @jeremyhay on X (Twitter)