Homeless no more, thanks to kindness of Las Vegans

It was Sept. 30, but it sounded like Christmas Day as Erica Conner and her three daughters — their bedroom has often been a 2009 Ford Taurus — walked for the first time through the two-bedroom apartment they now get to call home.

“Wow, look at the beds,” squealed 4-year-old Carvah as she started to climb up on top of one of two bunk beds. “We sleep here now?”

“Yes,” her mother said. “No more sleeping in the car.”

“Aren’t these beds great?” yelled 7-year-old Carviona.

“Unbelievable,” 11-year-old Carvia said softly as she sat on a bottom bunk. “Unbelievable.”

“Look, I have my own room, with my own bed,” a grinning Erica Conner said.

It had been 10 days since I shared with readers how administrators and teachers at Wendell Williams Elementary School, where 90 percent of the children grow up in poverty, try their best to accentuate the positive with their students and their families, particularly when they end up homeless like Erica Conner and her children.

Their message sounds simple — despite your circumstances, you can shape your own destiny — but there are Las Vegans who read of the plight of the homeless family who believe the perils of poverty, including not having a bed to sleep in, can often make shaping your own future seem like an impossible dream.

Because of those people who reached out to help the family, a homeless family now has a home. And more clothes. And gas money so mom can more regularly get to her job as a caregiver for the elderly.

And Erica Conner and her kids are now living with hope rather than despair.

“I know we can make it now,” Erica Conner said before leaving her apartment near downtown to drive her children to school. “Maybe my kids can go to college. I can’t say thank you enough to people.”

The family’s benefactors — all request anonymity — include a retired teacher, businessmen and a retired secretary.

A businessman who set up the $500 a month apartment with furniture and paid for the first three months’ rent explained why he frequently helps people in difficult situations when he reads or hears of their difficulties.

“The reason I help is that most people are one paycheck away or one financial emergency away from homelessness. … My wife and I know that people like her need help moving into an apartment. Most places require a security deposit, first month’s rent and sometimes last month’s rent. How can anyone who is struggling put down that much money?”

The businessman also says he will give Erica guidance in financial management so she can start planning her future instead of just thinking of how to survive day-to-day. He’s set up a fund https://www.gofundme.com/2rtjtv6p that he hopes will get her the training necessary for a better job.

A 79-year-old retired secretary contributed $2,000 toward the family’s rent. While she said she doesn’t have much of a retirement income, she said she always feels better when she can help people get back on their feet.

For the past 10 years, she said she has read the Review-Journal carefully every day to see whom she can best help.

“I can’t believe that in our wealthy county we have such a problem with homelessness,” she said. ” I abhor selfishness … I know there’s homeless who could be working, but most are deserving, like the woman you wrote about.”

A retired teacher who helped the family wrote she had “seen this plight more often than I would’ve liked to. When I was in the classroom, I was able to help firsthand.”

A New York businessman who opened an office in Las Vegas recently said he had helped people in his own community but decided he should help the less fortunate in other parts of the country, too. He bought the family clothes and shoes.

As happy as Erica Conner is that people helped her and her family, she reminds us of the many others still struggling to find a place to call home.

“When you work and can’t find shelter for you and your kids,” she said, “you think you’re going crazy. It just isn’t right, but there are many more families like ours.”

Paul Harasim’s column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Friday in the Nevada section and Monday in the Health section. Contact him at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @paulharasim on Twitter.