A Guide for the Journey Home

Before coming to Hildebrand, Arianne* was living in the Days Inn Hotel in Methuen with four of her children. She made the choice to transfer to Hildebrand because she knew the environment was not good for her children. Five people living in the same room makes for a stressful living situation.

“At first, [my children] had a lot of questions, ‘why weren’t we living in a house?’ – they started acting up,” Arianne said of her time in Methuen. When she first came to Hildebrand she was “excited because my kids felt like they were in a home.” At the Days Inn, Arianne and her children lived in one space, without privacy. At Hildebrand, they moved into scattered site shelter, which is an apartment with a fully equipped kitchen and separate bedrooms for mother and children. “Even though we were in shelter,” she said, “to my kids, it was a home.”

When she came to Hildebrand in January of 2014, she said, “I was completely lost, lost apartment, lost job, lost car – I thought everything was lost. Deborah helped provide motivation, more organization. In Methuen, I was just there – I had no guide. When you become homeless, you don’t know what to expect.” In the 20 months Arianne and her family spent with us, she gave birth to her fifth child, went back to school for cosmetology (and finished!), and received section 8 housing.

On her advice to new families entering Hildebrand, she said, “Appreciate it, follow the rules, let the social workers guide you, follow directions to get where you want to. It’s easy – at first I was lost – Hildebrand made such a huge impact.”

Arianne moved into her new apartment in Roslindale on October 1st of this year.