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By TRACIE WHITE / Special
to the Mercury News
in
the Gonzalez apartment, the vacuum is broken, there's no high chair
and the family of four sleeps together in one bedroom -- the parents
on a used mattress on the floor, their two young children next to
them on a futon.
It's pretty sparse, but to the Gonzalez family, this is a palace.
It's the first home of their own.
Donations to the Wish Book could provide a few new things to help
this family replace what it relinquished when the hard times hit.
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"We're just so grateful... The children know that this is their
home, and not someone else's. Finally, they feel secure."
Ramon Gonzalez feeds his son Jonathan in their new one-bedroom
apartment home.
(Anne-Marie
McReynolds /
Mercury News)
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"We're just so grateful,'' says Ramon Gonzalez, 27, speaking through
an interpreter about the family's new apartment, his new job, their
new lease on life. "The children know that this is their home, and
not someone else's. Finally, they feel secure.''
Just a year ago, the family was homeless. They were forced to
leave the two-bedroom apartment they were sharing with another family
when Gonzalez was laid off from his job as a carpenter and could
no longer afford rent. With no place else to go, wife Janeth, 24,
took the two children, Alondra, 3, and Jonathan, 2, to stay with
an aunt in Oakland. Gonzalez slept in his car or on a friend's couch
while he continued to search for work.
They had no choice but to sell off most of their possessions.
"There was so much pressure,'' says Gonzalez. "We just didn't know
what to do.''
By the time St. Joseph's Family Center stepped in with a three-month
reprieve last December at the Arturo Ochoa Migrant Housing Center
in Gilroy, offering a small furnished duplex as shelter, the Gonzalez
family didn't have much left. All their belongings fit easily inside
their small car.
Then they had to sell the car.
But once they were together again, things began to change. St.
Joseph's held a Christmas party for the 55 families who stay at
the seasonal shelter, and volunteers took the kids shopping for
new clothes. Caseworkers helped the parents find work, get transportation
to job interviews, find permanent housing.
By mid-February, Gonzalez found a job as a carpenter in Livermore
and watched his pay quickly rise from $8 an hour to $18. By March,
they were in their very own apartment for the first time.
"We just hope other people can get the same help we did,'' says
Gonzalez. While they build their new life, the family could use
a hand. A sofa bed for the kids ($700),
a bed and new mattress for the parents ($540)
and linens and warm blankets for both ($300)
would make everyone sleep a little sounder. A vacuum ($75)
would help keep things tidy.
And each
donation of $125 would provide a homeless child with new clothes,
shoes and school supplies. St. Joseph's expects to house 120 homeless
children this winter.
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FAMILY HOPES TO REPLACE HOME FURNISHINGS
