Tasha Allen, 18, wants to be a doctor. Like most high-school juniors, she's thinking about college. She's been wanting to go to Duke for as long as she can remember, but her grades aren't too good. She goes to school everyday, and then returns to the one story house on the corner of Queen and Holloway to do her homework and take care of her three-year old daughter, Senila.
Tasha and Senila have been living at the house on that corner-Durham's Genesis Home-since the week before Christmas.
"It's just a place where families can come to when they don't have nowhere to go," she says.
Genesis Home was founded in 1989 by the Durham Congregation in Action for that reason, says Juliana Smith, the director of Genesis. "At the time there was no other place in Durham for homeless families with young children," Smith says. Today the Durham homeless shelter and battered women's shelter are immediate options. But Genesis Home is not an emergency facility: It's a place for families who have been homeless to learn the skills they need to set up their own home again.
Genesis Home has five bedrooms. Each family has its own bedroom-once a woman with five children lived in one room. The families take turns cooking and cleaning, like a regular family. They also have classes several times a week on topics such as parenting, budgeting, health care, first-aid, landlord-tenant rights and welfare reform.
People who want to live in Genesis Home must first fill out an application and go through two interviews before being admitted. The waiting list is not done on a first-come-first-served basis.
"The first requirement is that a person be drug free, the second requirement is that she or he be motivated to try to seek employment or get enrolled in some type of a job training program or educational program," Smith says.
Tasha doesn't know her parents that well. She grew up in foster homes outside of Durham. She had her daughter and then lived with friends working at odd jobs. Now she's re-enrolled in school and preparing for the birth of her second child in late September. She heard about Genesis Home from a friend, then applied and passed her first interview.
Genesis Home called her back for a second interview, but it took a while before the interview was held-she didn't have transportation. At the second interview, a drug test was conducted and a police history was run on the family.
"In terms of a police record, someone can have a warrant for their arrest, or if they were a convicted child abuser then the person would not be able to live here safely with the other families," Smith says. "We only have a limited amount of resources. We only have five rooms. There are many more people who are homeless than we can possibly help. We need to make sure that the people who use the services of Genesis Home would use them wisely, that they would use it as a mechanism to become self-sufficient."
The home has a pretty good track record.
In 1995, 22 families lived there, with 18 completing the three-to-six month program, meaning that they left with a lease signed for their own apartment. "Two of those families left by choice because they wanted to be independent much sooner and saw a possibility of doing that or living with a friend. The other two were asked to leave because of substance abuse problems," Smith says.
There have been a few instances where a family leaves, but has to come back. One woman moved out and got a job in Research Triangle Park. She caught rides to work with her neighbor. When his car broke down she lost her job, and soon her home as well. When she came back the second time, Genesis Home helped her find housing beside a bus line.
As for Tasha, she likes living in the home. It's fun. She hates the chores but the people make her laugh. And she doesn't have to worry tonight about where she and her daughter will sleep. "I'm just trying to get myself together," she says.
-Wendy Grossman
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