"When you raise awareness and you elevate solutions, great things can happen," said Melissa Peterman, the executive director of Townspeople. She said she's taking small but intentional steps toward solving homelessness in the community, as a housing crisis plagues San Diego County and nationwide.
"It’s a two bedroom, so this is the smaller of the bedroom and the larger of the bedrooms," said Peterman. She showed ABC 10News the first single family home purchased by her organization, Townspeople.
It's empty now, but soon, it will be filled with people, ready to establish themselves in the home.
"What motives me is knowing that it’s solvable and then being able to see it solved for individuals day in and day out, so no, we haven’t solved it for everybody, but we have solved it for some people, and that’s life changing and that’s enough to keep going until we can make sure that everyone has a place to call home," said Peterman.
The house is going to be a stable home for at least two families needing affordable housing. They got an anonymous donation and others, raising close to $950,000.
“Annually, we help about 400 or so people through various types of housing options so we have affordable housing supportive housing emergency housing and then different services that are connected to those housing programs," said Peterman.
Peterman said through their efforts, they've had a 89% stabilization rate, meaning people have moved in and stayed in their housing units.
"It can feel overwhelming to look at an issue like homelessness and fee like there’s nothing that I can do to make a difference, and recognize that you don’t have, what’s the quote, you don’t have to do everything but you can do something," said Peterman. "And even something that seems insignificant to you can be life-changing for someone else."
Click here for more information about Townspeople.
