SHE’S A ‘CHOSEN ONE’

Natasha Roberson sat outside crying after being locked out of her rent-by-the-week room on a cold night late last year.

She didn't have the $200 in rent the motel was demanding, and she already had exhausted her other option: bouncing from one friend's home to another with her young daughter in tow and another one on the way.

Ashamed as she was, Roberson knew she had no choice but to finally ask her family for help.

"I didn't want to tell them the things that were going on," Roberson, 33, said Thursday. "But I finally broke down to my mom. I told her, 'I need help.'"

Roberson's mother had heard about the Women's Development Center, a 17-year-old local nonprofit organization that helps single parents who are homeless to get back on their feet.

Roberson applied to the program, was accepted and, nine months later, was serving as the center's poster child for success.

"She's one of the chosen ones," said Tina Prieto, deputy director of the center. "The cream of the crop."

"I feel so honored," Roberson said tearfully while sitting inside her two-bedroom apartment, which is subsidized by the Women's Development Center. "I've gotten a better-paying job, a new car and can put food on the table every night. I've gone from being really depressed and suicidal to being really happy."

Like many of the women in the center's transitional housing program, Roberson was a victim of domestic violence.

The center, which owns dozens of housing units in Clark County, got Roberson into a modestly furnished apartment near Owens and Eastern avenues, assigned her a case manager and has provided job training, food and other services.

The program requires her to save a portion of the income she earns as a cashier in a car dealership. She pays just $150 a month toward her rent.

"We like them to pay something to teach them what the real world is like," Prieto said.

The center serves as a bridge between emergency shelters and independent housing. It does not serve the chronically homeless, but instead those who are more likely to succeed with a little help.

"We work with people who are employed, or who want to work," Prieto said. "We look for a client who really wants to make a change in their lives."

They look for clients like Roberson, who wanted to make it on her own but wasn't sure how.

"I separated from my husband, and I just couldn't get back on my feet," she said.

Roberson and other clients can remain in the center's transitional housing program for up to 18 months, after which they have the option of using another of the center's programs, called "Link," that helps with moving expenses and utility deposits for more permanent housing.

In addition to its transitional housing program for single parents with children, the Women's Development Center runs an affordable rental program, an independent living program for seniors and a home buyer's assistance program.

Clients are referred to the center from various shelters and other social service providers. They also can apply directly, as Roberson did. There is usually a waiting list for all center programs.

Center staffers say they help about 3,500 people each year find more stable homes.

Candace Ruisi, the center's executive director, said the transitional housing program has been particularly successful.

Of the families who exited the program last year, 97 percent had found permanent housing.

But, eventually, some of the women who've been battered go back to their husbands, Ruisi said.

"We can't control that. They think he's going to change."

Most of the women who go through the transitional housing program remain self-sufficient.

"They are for the most part very dedicated," Ruisi said.

Prieto said the center helps struggling parents feel secure enough to work on their futures.

"When you're not sleeping in a park, when your spirit's intact, it makes you want to do better," she said.

Roberson now has a 3-month-old girl to look after along with her 8-year-old daughter.

Lately, she has felt more confident about her future than she has in a very long time.

"I'm holding up really good," she said while bottle-feeding baby Nevaeh. "I smile a lot more."