Over the sound of squeaky playground equipment and laughing children, Deanna Hover and her 15-month-old son Atticus grin at each other.
Atticus bobs back and forth on the little kids swing set, giggling as his mom pushes his swing higher and higher.
“What a wild ride,” Hover exclaims.
It certainly has been a wild ride for the mother-son duo, who graduated from the Volunteers of America’s ReStart program earlier this year after experiencing homelessness together.
“When I moved back to the Northern Nevada area, I was fleeing a domestic violence situation,” she told 2 News Nevada, sitting on a park bench at the Sparks Marina playground. “When Atticus was about three months old, I decided to leave.”
Hover said that when most people picture homelessness, they probably imagine someone sleeping on the sidewalk. But sitting on a bunk bed in the women’s shelter, that’s when it hit her that she and her child had no place to call home.
“I just remember laying there, just crying and thinking I failed as a mom,” she said, through tears. “This is not where we should be. This is not what I envisioned for me and my son.”
To add to the stress, Hover said, she had a 90-day deadline to leave the shelter and find other housing arrangements. She tried to come up with back-up plans, like taking out a loan and living in a trailer with her baby. But that changed when she got a call from the VOA.
“They said, you know, we know you’re working. We know you’re a new mom, but we have services that can help you,” she said.
The VOA helped her develop a budget, find day care for Atticus, and make a deposit on an apartment. After five months, she was living independently as a ReStart graduate.
“This house went from a bassinet and a pile of clothes on the floor to, now we have my bed and the couch, and he’s got his own room all set up and he’s in his little toddler bed,” Hover said. “We’ve grown in this home together, and honestly it was possible because of VOA.”
Hover will be one of several speakers at a VOA “Homelessness to Independence” free community discussion Wednesday Night at 6 p.m. Visit this link to RSVP to attend the event.
