I'm Pat Doris. Welcome to the s.
We're going to start tonight wih
the story we've been following
for months and one that many
of you have been asking about.
Back in November, our Blair Best
worked with an outreach team to
get a chronically homeless woman
off the street in the housing.
Well, it's been seven months now
since Tara was handed a key to r
own apartment and Blair checked
in to see how she's been doing
as she tries to move forward and
leave life on the street behind.
I need your help.
The transition Tara Pietro
Monaco has gone through,
is life changing to say the lea.
It's not cold,
so, I mean, it makes it easier e
able to like, move around and stuff. For
the first time in years,
she's living indoors.
When I hear noises now outside,
I ain't worried about jumping uo
go out and what's going on, you know?
Or like was out there or anything like that.
Anxieties that became second
nature to her while living in
this trailer on NE 33rd drive.
Now I look at it, it's like, thk
God I'm not here anymore.
I just don't know if I would hae
been able to live much longer out there.
I mean, I was getting to
the point where I was on my
on my breaking point.
I was really on that breaking edge, ready to just, like, fall
off of it. We caught her just in time.
We might be able to get you into
a place like a studio apartment,
kind of situation. Seven months,
we connected her with an outreach team.
They moved her into this Southet
Portland apartment building made
for homeless people. I'm gratef.
I'm grateful. Mostly because of,
because if it weren't for you,
I probably wouldn't be here right now.
You know, I like you're like a friend of me.
You're not just the newest person to me. So
we met Tara about a year ago.
She collected just about everytg
and was good at keeping herself busy.
Hey, Kate. Cliff, we need
to push this car over there.
So this makes sense right now.
I have my rooms like this.
I've got this here.
It's going to go over to this wall and
I have a dresser that's down in here.
To some, it's chaos. To her,
it's an attempt at finding secuy
and then I'm going to take these crates
and I'm going to screw them all together.
This room was actually cleaner
a couple days ago and the only
downfall about being here,
being indoors is I've lost my vehicles and
I lost a lot of my things that I that were.
Important to me, you know,
that cost a lot of money when
I was out there. You know,
she often goes back
to the camp to check on her
brother who still lives
there. Bro, I'm not leaving youI
do worry about him because
he doesn't belong out there eit.
How's it going?
This is something Gurney Kimber,
who works with Tara, says is co.
Tara was, I think, a really acte
member in her community down th,
and I think there was. She was valued.
Like many homeless nonprofits join where
Kimberly Works is severely understaffed.
This is not the kind of job
you clock in and clock out of.
I mean this job you take home
with you and you go to sleep wih
it and you wake up with it, he
says. Tara's caseworker has at t
sixty other clients just like h.
People are coming off the
streets with a lot of trauma,
a lot of addiction issues and
a lot of severe mental health.
And if we're not realistic about that and
willing to put the time and money into,
and might mean serious time,
not just a year, not just six months,
but actual time up to up to thro
five years into working with somebody,
then we're out of touch with reality and
so getting back on her feet.
Will take a lot of work from Tara too.
I don't even know where
to begin on that. You know,
that's it's a big step
and and I have a hard
time with change.
So Blair, great story and
what was it like for her when
she literally moved off the str?
Yeah, so it's a pretty hard transition.
And I think that's really the pt
that this story is trying to mas
that it's not easy to come off e
streets and it's not a quick fi.
So originally when she moved
into that apartment building,
she was sick for a while.
She suffered a lot of health
issues and she was in and out of
the hospital for quite some tim.
Is that just from the maladies
of being out on the street, not
being that real? I mean,
I didn't ask her specifically.
What she went through was she
has some mobility, disabilities.
She had to move to the bottom f,
just things like that.
And then she had trouble
paying her rent. I understand
she did. Yeah.
She lives off of Social Securit,
so not a lot of money probably..
And she pays about half of that towards.
Rent at that apartment building
and she struggled to pay rent
for a while and probably cuz
also she's not used to that 100.
It's a whole new system to try and learn.
But it's interesting because the property
management that overseas her building,
they do what's called a compassionate
property management where they e
issues like that and they don't use it
as an excuse to evict someone and put
her back out on the side of the street.
They tried working with her and.
I've heard that it's gotten better and
she's been paying her rent on t.
Well, that's nice.
Yeah, it's nice to hear.
And
I understand there's also a prom
because she likes to collect ca.
She does. Yes.
Tara is a mechanic, if you will.
OK, good for her.
She has a passion for cars,
for working on things,
and she did bring some of those
to the neighborhood that she moved into.
It did cause some issues. You k,
people ultimately towed her vehicles.
That was really hard on her.
That's going to happen.
I mean, that's her.
That was her identity.
Out on NE 33rd were her cars.
She was the
lady who had all the cars. She
was. And she worked on other
people's cars as well. Yeah, she
could still do that,
not have them parked all over
the neighborhood, I guess.
Yeah, she doesn't anymore. But
it's been interesting to
me how much people in our
audience have cared about her.
We're getting emails all the ti.
In fact, we just got one from you yesterday.
And I know you had a chance
to talk to Tara about
that. I did. I mean,
I even get emails as well.
And so I told Tara about that.
And here's what she had to say.
So I kind of wanted to tell you
I'm ever since that story aired,
we get emails probably every wek
asking about you. There is a whe
community of people out there.
I went to stores and this lady.
Like, aren't you that Lady
girl that was on the TV?
I said no, that wasn't me. No.
And she goes, yeah, I know it was you.
I'm like, no, it must have
been my twin or something.
What do you think about that?
I mean, there's a whole communiy
out there rooting for you and
and constantly asking me,
how's Tara doing?
What is she doing now?
What am I doing now? I sit in my room a lot.
I sit in my room
a lot and think,
so good to hear from her and.
I guess it would feel so good to know
that people that you don't know care about
you. Yeah. I wanted to make
sure that she knew she had this
community rooting for her. Yeahd
it's also an example that it tas
more than four walls and a roofo
get somebody stable in housing.
Very much so, yeah.
Thanks for the story, Blair.
Great update.