Friend,
One of the great privileges of my work is the chance to speak with service members and military families. Each conversation reminds me just how often they are asked to uproot their lives: moving from base to base, state to state, sometimes across the world. Beyond the logistics of finding a new home, packing and unpacking boxes, the real disruptions run deeper. Every move means enrolling children in new schools, locating the nearest grocery store, finding a dentist who is taking new patients, discovering a new congregation, meeting new neighbors, finding where to get a haircut, identifying a reliable plumber, even deciding, once again, where to put the Christmas tree. Individually, these tasks may seem small, but repeatedly layered together, they can create isolation, instability, and lost opportunities. But these moves, at least, come with the support structures of the military.
Now imagine displacement without that support: unplanned, abrupt, and entirely out of one’s control.
In his powerful memoir Cajas de cartón, Dr. Francisco Jiménez, the Fay Boyle Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Santa Clara University, shares his own experience as a child of migrant farmworkers. He describes waking one August morning and finding to his dismay a too often repeated scene: “When I opened the door of our little hut, I stopped. I saw that everything that belonged to us was packed in cardboard boxes… I sat on a box, and my eyes filled with tears at the thought that we had to move.”
At its core, the promise of affordable housing is stability. Stability means:
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A child can attend the same elementary school for more than a semester.
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A family can build a relationship with a primary care provider.
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A student can qualify for local scholarships and in?state tuition.
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A working parent can advance in their career.
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A senior can remain connected to a familiar and supportive place of worship.
Yet today, in a political climate purposefully defined by chaos and uncertainty, stability is increasingly under threat. Our work at People’s Self-Help Housing exists to protect it.
Ken Trigueiro, CEO & President
On behalf of the People’s Team
