LOS ANGELES — Opening the door to her very own apartment is a dream come true for Krystal Holguin. As she walks in, with a box of her belongings and her 3-year-old daughter behind her, Holguin is overcome with emotion and gratitude.
Her apartment has been furnished with a new refrigerator, microwave, furniture and more by the Holliday’s Helping Hands Foundation.
“I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know how to feel,” Holguin said.
For the last four years, Holguin and her daughter have been staying at one of Holliday’s Helping Hands interim housing sites. It’s taken her two years to use her Section 8 voucher, also known as a Housing Choice Voucher.
Now, she’s finally moving into a place of her own.
“Miss Katina has done so much for me already and she doesn’t have to do none of this, you know? So now I walk in to a home furnished, food,” Holguin said.
But it wasn’t an easy process.
Spectrum News shared her story last year, when her Section 8 voucher received a one month extension before later expiring. Holguin said she wasn’t sure if she would find a place after all.
“I’m going back to school in December for the winter program for cosmetology. My daughter is in school. I finally got my home. Everything’s just falling into place this year,” she said.
In California, it’s against the law for landlords to decline Section 8 vouchers. A challenge, Holliday’s Helping Hands CEO Katina Holliday said her organization is trying to overcome through partnerships with landlords.
The organization helped 20 families in April alone find housing, Holliday said.
“There has been a bottleneck in the housing, you know, people get their vouchers and then they expire so Miss Krystal is one of those that vouchers expired and because it expired our case management team had to advocate for her, work toward getting her voucher back,” Holliday said.
But as Holguin poses for her first photo in her new apartment with daughter in hand, she said she’s just happy to provide for her daughter once again.
“It makes me feel good because she hasn’t seen this in a while. For her to walk into this and know that this is hers, it’s the best thing to me. It makes me feel like I accomplished something as a mother,” she said.