The holiday season represents more than food and watching sports. It’s a time to be grateful and to reflect on opportunities that are easy to take for granted.
For single mother Kay Kay, 26, whose name has been intentionally withheld for security reasons, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the support and generosity of the Greenfield Family Inn and Shelter.
Kay Kay narrowly escaped a violent ordeal where she and her 2-year-old son almost lost their lives. She re-located to Greenfield to find a safe new start. Once here, Kay Kay realized she still had an old warrant from years before. She turned herself in and was incarcerated for six months. Meanwhile, her son was placed in a temporary foster home.
“If I didn’t fix this,” Kay Kay said one recent day, “It still would be hanging over my head and I wouldn’t be able to have the productive life I have now.”
When Kay Kay explained to The Department of Children and Families what happened, she says they didn’t cast her in a bad light. Instead, they worked to reunite her with her young son.
“I was the only solid person in my son’s life. He went through trauma and I escaped that so we could have a better life,” she said.
To that end, DCF stayed in close contact with Kay Kay while she was incarcerated. When she got out, they told her that as soon as she was able to find a safe family shelter, she could have her son full-time. Kay Kay’s re-entry caseworker at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office recommended the Greenfield Family Inn and Shelter and helped her with the application process.
In January, she was accepted into the program — the first step toward stability.
“If it wasn’t for (the inn),” Kay Kay said, “I wouldn’t have a home. I wouldn’t have full custody of my son. This is the biggest stepping stone that I needed to show that I’m dedicated to having a good life and starting over in a safe community.”
Last year, the Federal Street facility served 35 families, including 41 adults and 60 children. It started in 1987 when the state was looking for agencies to have congruent shelters for homeless families. To that end, the state worked with Community Action, The Center for New Americans and Greenfield’s public school system. These days, the shelter is open 24 hours and accepts referrals through a number of different agencies including from the Department of Housing and Community Development.
The program temporarily gives housing-insecure families “a place to stay. Each family is different, so we work with a lot of the agencies in the community. We help them apply for assistance whether that is cash assistance (Temporary Assistance For Needy Families) or Social Security. We’ll point them in the direction of the career center to find work. The average length of stay is around five to six months until they can find safe affordable permanent housing,” said Program Director Fran Lemay.
The Greenfield Family Inn and Shelter’s building on Federal Street, which Service Net owns, can house up to six families. Elsewhere, there are six other apartments in the community that Service Net rents: four large shared apartments and two smaller single apartments. This gives those in need of housing a gradual transition to full independence.
“It’s a great transformative journey for them,” said Matt Montanaro, the shelter’s assistant director. “They come in such a fragile emotional state. We try to offer a full range of help for each individual in the program so they can be confident in the community and aware of the services we can help them with. We give them a tour of the shelter, explain the program to them and set them up with appointments for their housing specialist and our case manager.”
For Kay-Kay, the program was life-changing. At first, she shared an apartment with another family.
By April 2019, she had signed a lease for a two-bedroom apartment in low-income housing. These days, she is independent.
“It has been a really good experience and shame-free. Fran and Matt have helped me through this journey and they still keep in touch with me wanting updates on how I’m doing,” she said.
For now, Kay Kay remains positive taking care of her son and her mental health. Her biggest obstacle is post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Sometimes it can be crippling. Not being able to leave your home. Not being able to do daily functions like going to the grocery store, turn in paperwork to the food stamp office or take the bus,” Kay Kay said. “It’s a full-time job conquering my PTSD and being able to be fully functioning. That is my main focus before I get in too deep with too many things and I’m overwhelmed.”
Looking to the future, Kay Kay says she’d like to do complete a certification program and be able to advocate for people who need help. She wants people to know that a shelter can still be a really good place and they shouldn’t be ashamed of it because she isn’t.
“Yes, bad things have happened in my past, but (Greenfield Family Inn and Shelter) didn’t hold that against me. They let me start fresh. That’s what I got and that’s what I needed,” Kay Kay said.
For information on the Greenfield Family Inn Program call 1-866-584-0653.
Miasha Lee is a resident of Hatfield. She loves writing about music, health, culture and everyday people in the community. Contact her at miashalee2@gmail.com.