Providing living assistance for the unhoused may sound like a job only the city government could do, but one Marshall graduate student is taking matters into her own hands.
Once Coco Daniels, second-year in the Master of Social Work program, discovered the Vanity Fair apartments located downtown, she took the information to others who she said she knew would put it to use: the Huntington Citizen Action Group.
“Nobody knew what it was. Nobody had any clue that there was a Housing First initiative in town,” Daniels, who serves on the housing insecurity committee for the newly-formed action group, said.
With the new information brought about by Daniels, the group plans to clean and repair some of the units that are currently unsuitable for living, which will give approximately 11 unhoused individuals a place to stay in the Housing First apartment complex.
“The Housing First model is basically a way to deal with homelessness: you give them the house first and say, ‘This is yours. You live here. You can do whatever you want with it because it’s your place, and then we’re going to provide you with services to help stabilize you,” Daniels said.
According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, “Strong evidence exists that the Housing First model leads to quicker exits from homelessness and greater housing stability over time compared with treatment as usual.”
This evidence-backed approach is a core value of the Huntington Citizen Action Group, which “aims to hold public officials in Huntington, West Virginia, accountable and focus on the best evidence-based solutions for all,” as stated on the group’s Facebook page.
Housing insecurity may only be one of the group’s many focuses, but Daniels said her work with both Harmony House and the Huntington Citizen Action Group have made her realize how prevalent the issue is with the community.
“I went from being aware of it to working with them through the internship and realizing that there’s actually a whole lot of people who care about this issue deeply,” she said. “They just don’t have the money to be able to do the things that they need, so instead of getting the money, we can donate some time and some energy and some work.”
Although “open” doesn’t particularly describe Daniels’ schedule as a grad student, she said she makes time for projects such as the housing cleanup because she’s actively making a difference in her community.
“As a student being involved with it, I made the time because I was motivated, because I was in a situation where I was realizing that we do have the power to do something about it,” she said.
“If a person is suffering, then our work is not done, and we have to make sure that everybody has all of their basic human rights,” she said, “and I do believe that a place to live is a basic human right.”
The action group’s Vanity Fair apartment cleanup will take place Thursday, Sept. 18, and Friday, Sept. 19. The cleanup is sign-up only; individuals interested in volunteering should contact the group via their Facebook page, “Huntington Citizen Action Group.”
Baylee Parsons can be contacted at [email protected].
