Ed Martinez and his daughters Andrea, front, and Donna have battled back from homelessness.

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THE WISH: A COUCH, BED, DRESSERS AND GIFT CERTIFICATES FOR A NEW HOME

Family gets a second chance

in the mornings before she goes to school, 14-year-old Andrea helps her mom wash her face and brush her teeth. Then she puts her food for the day on a low shelf in the refrigerator where her mom can reach it. Her sister Donna, 13, makes sure their mom takes her medicine.

``They look tall, and they look able,'' says Linda Ortiz with pride. ``But inside, they're still kids. They shouldn't have had to go through what we've been through.''

A year ago, Linda Ortiz and her husband, Ed Martinez, found themselves in a bind when they couldn't make the mortgage payments on their home in Sacramento. Linda, who has been in a wheelchair since she was hit by a drunken driver at age 2, got sick, and Ed had to leave his job to care for her.

The family moved in with Linda's mother in Morgan Hill, but the landlord threatened eviction when he found out, and the family was left with no place to stay but their van. That's when St. Joseph's Family Center stepped in with a three-month reprieve at the Arturo Ochoa Migrant Housing Center in Gilroy, a Santa Clara Housing Authority shelter designed to help 75 families get back on track, find jobs, get rent money together and move on.

And that's just what they did. Ed got a job at Gilroy High School. The family found a duplex close to work so that he can care for Linda at lunchtime. The girls help out both before and after school.

This close family is determined never to be homeless again.

``We're just happy to have a roof over our heads,'' Linda says.

A couch ($300) (16A), box springs ($129) (16B) and a bed frame ($49) (16C) for Andrea and dressers for the two girls ($200 each) (16D) would make the house more of a home. Gift certificates at a department store ($25 each) (16E) would allow the girls to pick out a new outfit or two.

And each donation of $125 (16F) to St. Joseph's -- an independent, non-profit agency founded by St. Mary Church in Gilroy that manages programming at the housing center -- would provide a homeless child with new clothes, shoes, underwear, school supplies and other necessities. The agency's staff believes that having new things boosts kids' self-confidence and dignity and encourages them to stay in school. The Ochoa Center expects to house about 130 children this winter.