“At Clearlake Isles, we had an apartment become available unexpectedly, the tenant was unable to give any notice which put us in a hurry to get it leased as soon as possible. We went through our entire Interest List and nobody on it was able to move in for immediate occupancy. I previously had been talking to Betsy Farmer, a Director at Brevard County Housing Authority who helps find housing for those who may be homeless. I had worked with Betsy at Promise in Brevard, a property in Melbourne that RAM had previously managed. She once told me that if I had if I had anything available to reach out. I gave her a call, as we needed someone right away, and she had an applicant for me. We worked with Donna at the Genesis House in getting his application completed as our applicant is legally blind. After several phone calls and papers back and forth, we finally got him approved to move in, on the day that his Hotel Voucher expired. A huge thank you to Kelsey Brites in Compliance who was able to urgently approve this application, due to our designated Compliance person being out for the week. Kelsey, you are a life-saver! We couldn’t have done this without you, too.
During the application process, I was made aware that our new resident owned nothing but a suitcase and a backpack. We were about to move him into this beautiful apartment, but he had nothing, the need to help him was overwhelming. I enlisted the help of my staff and my amazing Clearlake Residents. I sent a text out to everyone, only telling them that we were seeking donations of any and all household items for someone in need. We had a flood of messages and deliveries to the office. Within 3 hours we picked up donated items, sanitized them and put them in our new resident’s apartment. Neither our staff or residents had yet met Mr. Thomas, or even talked to him on the phone. We were not sure how this was going to go. Read more
