A home for the holidays
Glen Amick has a checkered past. The 57-year-old Taos resident has had his fair share of ups and downs throughout his life, and has been homeless for the past five years. In his younger days, he had several run-ins with the law and did a stint in a Texas prison. But in this past year of worldwide chaos and turmoil, things have started looking up for Amick, who after six weeks at the Taos Men's Shelter, now has a housing voucher and soon, a place to call home. A seasoned river guide and outdoor lover, Amick has prided himself on living off-grid for the past 15 years to some degree. But time and nature haven't been kind to Amick's body – he's suffered multiple back injuries, a neck surgery, nine compound fractures in his arm and more. It also doesn't help that he suffered from MRSA – a type of staph infection that is resistant to antibiotics – and is now considered at high risk were he to get sick.
These sobering realities mean that Amick could no longer maintain a lifestyle he said consisted of “no TVs, no newspapers, no radio and no checking accounts.” He tried – living in a
camper in Arroyo Seco, then next to a church in town – but eventually another injury, COVID-19, and paperwork got in the way. Then, after plans to move into a house in Valdez fell through, Amick found himself at the Taos Men's Shelter. “I didn't really have a choice,” he said.
Help from the shelter
When Amick arrived at the Taos Men's Shelter in late August, he started signing up for programs with the help of the shelter's case manager Dan Wohl. Wohl is a veteran of public service, who for the past 10 years has focused his efforts on helping people get on their feet. He helps clients with everything from housing and documentation to drug programs and behavioral health services. He described his job as helping “people who are often cognitively imparied, seriously disabled or addicted, navigate the process of trying to get help.”
Wohl helped Amick sign up for a housing voucher through the New Mexico Linkages housing program – a program under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the state Mortgage and Finance Authority. In order to qualify for the voucher, Linkages requires that applicants have some sort of disability, be it physical, mental or in most cases both. In Amick's case, his various injuries, his homelessness and the fact that he admittedly doesn't “play well with others,” all qualified him for the voucher.
Locally, Amick is working with Valle del Sol, a nonprofit organization that helps with behavioral health, housing and a plethora of other services. Valle del Sol has partnered with another Taos-based nonprofit, the DreamTree Project, to provide housing vouchers through the Linkages program. While Valle del Sol does the diagnosis and decides who qualifies for housing, DreamTree works as the housing authority, providing the money, inspecting the housing and doing background checks.
The voucher, which Wohl made clear is not a physical paper, but rather a confirmed spot in the program, allows Amick to find a place to settle down. Luckily for him, a mutual friend owns a house just down the street from the shelter and has allowed Amick to stay there until the DreamTree completes the final inspection – at which point the landlord will receive payment, and the house will be Amick's for two years, or until he qualifies for Section 8 housing. Wohl explained that what Amick has is similar to a Section 8 voucher, but requires a monthly home check-in with Valle del Sol.
A broken system
The house is a hard-won respite for Amick, who has jumped through multiple hoops to get himself to where he is today. When it became clear he needed healthcare nearby, and a house in Valdez fell through, the Taos Men's Shelter was his best option. From there, a multi organizational effort has been made to help him get on his feet.
Wohl said that although Amick has found an amicable landlordtenant relationship, many local landlords discriminate against people with housing vouchers. “In Taos, probably 50 percent or more of people with rentals won't work with [housing] programs anyway,” he said. Along with discrimination, Wohl explained a myriad of other problems. “A lot of these guys are just cyclically making progress and then falling back and losing everything. Many of the people I work with have done that multiple times. They just can't stay afloat, so-to-speak.”
Wohl also spoke of a nationally underfunded Department of Housing and Urban Development as the culprit for people falling through the cracks of the system. “There's more need than there are vouchers,” he said bluntly. “The bottleneck is always availability.”
He supports more funding for HUD, and said that what the men he works with needed to get by was “not a lot, by [federal] standards.”
In spite of everything, the shelter itself has had a lot of success getting their residents housing. “What I push is not just getting people in programs, it's working towards self-sufficiency. Recovery, resiliency and working toward selfsufficiency is really the goal.”
Getting out
Sometimes the goal of the public welfare system is achieved. Sarah, a woman who asked that her real name not be used due to stigma around Section 8 housing, has nearly done just that. The mother of two kids, Sarah found herself on the doorstep of Community Against Violence, a Taosbased nonprofit that helps women and children in abusive situations. “I literally had nothing except what was in my vehicle and my kids,” she said.
That was four years ago. Today, however, Sarah is settled into a nice house in town, and is using her time to attend school via a Pell Grant. After arriving at CAV, the nonprofit introduced her to Section 8. “I had to wait a long time for the application process, it took about six months,” she said of the Section 8 application process. Today, the application process can take up to two years, with hundreds of people waiting for 377 Section 8 vouchers from the state's Northern Regional Housing Authority.
Luckily for Sarah, she was able to find a landlord who accepted a Section 8 voucher, and today finds herself in that same house. She is able to help her children with their online distance learning, all while studying to become a healthcare worker. If it weren't for the programs, Sarah said she wouldn't be where she is today. “If I didn't have those and I don't have an education – it wouldn't matter if I worked seven days a week for years and years, it wouldn't be enough. Period. Cut and dry, I wouldn't make enough.”
For all of these reasons, Sarah doesn't take anything for granted. “I'm so humbled and I'm so grateful,” she said. “I know there's people out there who abuse the system, but then there's people
like me who use the system to get out of the system.”
Her past struggles remain hidden. Some of her closest friends don't know what she's been through to have a home. She explained that her anonymity was in part due to that fact. “It's sad because I have friends who criticize [public support systems] and they don't know that I'm on them. They don't know that it's completely changed my life, and changed my kids' lives. Eventually, Sarah hopes to buy the house from her landlord. Until then, she is working diligently on her studies and caring for her children. “I'm just in a steady headspace of gratitude.”
Life at home
Despite restrictive rentals, peer judgement and many other hoops to jump through in the broken housing system, people like Dan Wohl are helping others navigate the often erratic waters. Though Wohl is no longer Amick's case manager – as Amick no longer lives at the shelter – Wohl still bends over backwards to help him. Be it driving them to an appointment or helping find a document, Wohl focuses on his clients.
Wohl was able to put three additional clients in housing since Amick left, working with Goodwill Industries, Taos Rehousing Program, public and private housing and “Section 8 after waiting long enough.” In terms of the Linkages program, Wohl explained that there are 12 vouchers at any given time, and that someone needs to get out of the Linkages system in order for one of their vouchers to become available again.
In Amick's case, it looks as if all his and Wohl's hard work will pay off this week, as the house is set for inspection next Wednesday. Then, Amick's landlord will sign an agreement with DreamTree and Linkages, as well as attend an orientation, and Amick's housing will be official. It will be the first time in a long time since he's had a place to call his own, and he plans on celebrating by cooking for several friends this weekend.
When asked how it felt to have his own bed again, he paused. As tears started to well up, he recalled that he hadn't had a real bed since he was 15 years old. “I used to sleep on floors and in bathrooms, just to stay warm.” He said that he prays every day – in his own way – and has devoted his days to making medicinal products to help people with everything from skin cancer to depression. With his new house and his new puppy Cruzzer (pronounced “cruiser”), he considers himself blessed.
Most of all he said he is thankful for Wohl, who has gone above and beyond to help Amick through the process. “There's no recognition on this earth that pays tribute to what they do,” he said, referring to Wohl and the shelter, his voice full of gratitude.