WLWT 5
CINCINNATI — A woman living in a van with her four kids in Cincinnati now has temporary housing with the Salvation Army, thanks to help from the community.
On Wednesday, WLWT told you how Jamie Coleman has struggled with finding affordable housing after she said she left a home due to domestic violence.
Coleman and her four kids, all CPS students ages 5-17, had been living in a van as she desperately tried to find a warm place to live.
She was a recipient of a one-year rapid re-housing program. But the term ended in August.
Coleman is a medical assistant who picks up 12 hours shift where she can, but between that and raising her kids, she says it’s difficult to navigate the hurdles of finding Section 8 housing.
She said she had been trying to make things as routine as possible for her kids.
“I make sure they wash they face and brush they teeth even if we have to go to our gas station in a bathroom,” said Jamie Coleman.
She says the children are trying to understand, especially the 5-year-old.
“[She asks] can we go home? Can we go home? and it’s hard because I don’t have a home to go to,” said Coleman.
Coleman says the hotline for these situations is only available once a week and many times she gets put on a waitlist or doesn’t get a call back.
She said it’s been dead end after dead end.
But after being connected with multiple organizations, all looking to step up, including Women Helping Women and the YWCA, the Salvation Army was able to get her and her kids in a home while she looks for a permanent place.
Coleman expressed she is so grateful for the community’s help.
