Manuel Montenegro                                                   

Manuel Montenegro lost both of his parents as a child, and his unstable upbringing led him to drugs and prison. When he went to prison, he lost custody of his children. Upon his release from prison in 2007, he became focused on maintaining his sobriety and getting his children back into his life. Banyan House offered a sufficiently stable living environment for Child Protective Services to give him custody of his daughter and visitation with his son. While at Banyan, Manuel studied counseling at Merritt College full time, took all the on-call work he could, got his daughter and himself to school every day, picked up his son from Richmond and returned him every weekend—all on public transit. He stayed on his budget and accumulated savings. He was an effective resident council chairperson. He was active in his recovery and attended outside counseling, in addition to participating in all the life skills classes offered at FESCO. He completed 18 units toward his AA degree and has maintained a 3.0 average. All of Manuel’s hard work earned him a spot in the Jobs/Housing Linkages Program. This program provides a rent subsidy for up to two years for formerly homeless families now renting in the private housing market. Participants must be on a path, through employment and schooling, to earn sufficient income to pay the full rent by the time the subsidy expires. In July, Manuel received three things he had worked long and hard for. The first was a certificate from Child Protective Services for achievement in his reunification, recognizing his complete cooperation and endurance with the process. The second was an invitation from CPS to train with them in a nine-month program and come to work for CPS as a Parent Advocate. As honored as he was by these, the third thing was the most important of all to Manuel: he was awarded full custody of his son.

Lanita Yarburough came to the Les Marquis House with her three small children. While living at the Shelter, she took classes to become certified as a CNA and LVN and worked as a Medical Assistant in Pleasanton at night. She would push her two younger children in a stroller while her oldest son would skate board as they walked to the BART station to go to work. She would take the children to child care while she was working at night and pick them up after her shift. They would return to the Shelter in the morning and get ready for school that day. Once the children were at school she would take a short rest, do all her chores, run errands, then pick up her children after school only to do it all over again. She never complained or missed a day of work. She wore through 3 strollers during the time she was at the Shelter. Lanita became a favorite among the staff with her “can do” attitude. When other clients thought their obstacles could not be conquered, they would be told the story of “a lady named Lanita.” She is now employed with Kaiser and working toward her Nursing License.

Trinity Bodine has four boys between the ages of one and nine, and has the sympathy of mothers everywhere. As much of a challenge as raising four sons might be by itself, Trinity has also had to overcome incredible difficulties just to find a secure and healthy environment for her children. A Banyan House resident since February, Trinity grew up in a tough neighborhood and had troubles with drug addiction early on. “I hit rock bottom in my life. I was in recovery for a year, before going back to live with my mom. That was definitely a bad decision, going back to that horrible environment. Everyone was using drugs, and my living place was just trash, just plain trash. I definitely did not want to raise my children there.” She started her search to find a shelter to live in and after many rejections from other agencies she found FESCO and entered the Les Marquis House. She quickly moved into Banyan House with her boys and was able to create a stable environment for her family. Besides working two part time jobs she will be returning to college this Fall to continue her studies. Trinity aspires to teach as a college English professor. She turned out to be an an extraordinarily bright, straight-A student sporting a 4.0 grade-point average.