Yulanda and Jerome Bearden were ready to give up. They’d moved with their five children into a Hayward, California, homeless shelter, and felt like their life had hit the “lowest of the lows.”
But two years later, the Beardens stood in their kitchen, surrounded by boxes of candy and sprinkles. Enveloped in the smell of warm caramel, they marveled at how much has changed. Not only are they stably housed, now they’re entrepreneurs selling candy apples and other treats to a quickly expanding base of sweet-toothed customers.
“We came from the bottom,” Yulanda said, after selling out of candy over Valentine’s Day – and making $1,200. “And now we’re here, and it’s just a blessing.”
The Beardens ended up without housing thanks to a long list of converging circumstances, including childhoods spent in and out of homelessness, a poorly planned move to Las Vegas, low-wage jobs, high rents, and a series of unlucky breaks. But after the family of seven entered a shelter run by the nonprofit Family Emergency Shelter Coalition, it took just five months and money for a security deposit – paid for by the coalition – to get the Beardens housed.
Society often views homelessness as a semi-permanent condition, and many chronically homeless people struggle with addiction, mental illness or other issues that require intensive treatment. But some people who end up unhoused or on the brink of homelessness need surprisingly little aid to pull themselves back up.
The Keep Oakland Housed program found that households struggling with expenses needed an average of $3,300 to avoid becoming homeless. In Santa Clara County, an average payment of $5,000 was enough to keep 91% of applicants housed for at least two years.
The Beardens’ story shows how much of a difference a relatively small amount of aid can make, said Kyle Garcia, director of development and strategic partnerships at La Familia and the Family Emergency Shelter Coalition.
“Sometimes people just need a little bit of help to get back on their feet,” she said. “And it’s OK to ask for help.”
Yulanda and Jerome both grew up in the Bay Area, but they didn’t meet until 2009 when they lived in the same apartment complex in Sacramento. The first time she saw him, Yulanda says, she told a friend, “That’s going to be my husband.” The next year, they were married. They had three children together, creating a blended family with Yulanda’s two kids from her prior relationship.
In 2017, things started to go downhill. They moved to Las Vegas so the children could be closer to Jerome’s sister, but after just a few weeks of living with her, they wore out their welcome. Soon they were sleeping in hotels, and then in their van.
While Yulanda looked after the kids, Jerome tried to find work in warehouses and on construction sites. But it was hard to hold down a job while their living situation was so precarious.
For the next two years, every time things seemed to be going well, something would happen to upend their lives again. They moved in with Yulanda’s mother in Sacramento, but when she got evicted, they were back to sleeping in the van. They found an apartment in Hayward but had to move out when the landlord raised the rent. They landed a more affordable place in Sacramento, but then the building was sold and they were given a notice to vacate.
Adding to their struggles was a decade-old conviction for marijuana possession on Jerome’s record, which sometimes made it hard for him to get a job. He also pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge after a 2009 confrontation with an ex-girlfriend.
By 2018, the Beardens were bouncing between hotels and relatives’ homes in the Bay Area. They kept as much as they could from their kids, framing the hotel-hopping as a vacation and seeking free entertainment at the library and local parks.
Jerome was working two jobs – the day shift at an Amazon warehouse in Newark, and the night shift as a janitor in San Francisco. But in November 2018, out of options, the family moved into the Les Marquis House shelter.
Five months later, they found a two-bedroom apartment in Hayward for $2,200 a month. The Family Emergency Shelter Coalition paid the $1,000 security deposit, and the Beardens finally had a stable place to call home.
A few months later, Yulanda came across a YouTube video of someone making candy apples. “I was like, ‘I think I can do that,'” she said. “So I went into the kitchen.”
When she texted Jerome a picture of the finished apples, he thought they looked professional enough to sell. From there, The Family Treats Shop was born. They put fliers up around the neighborhood, started an Instagram account (the_family_treats_shop_) where people can place orders, and got a food handling license.
“Orders just started coming in,” Jerome said.
When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Jerome stopped going to work to avoid catching the virus, and poured his full energy into the candy business. It’s a lot of work – sometimes they’re up until 4 or 5 a.m. filling orders.
The couple brings in about $1,500 a week, Yulanda said. That plus some government assistance – including CalWORKS and six months of COVID rental relief through the state – has been enough to pay the bills.
On a recent Friday, the kids were helping prepare gift boxes before starting their online classes. Alberto Arroyo, 17, was pulling the stems and stickers off the apples before Jerome dipped them in hot water, washing off the shiny wax coating so the caramel would stick. Athenna Arroyo, 16, was making hearts and butterflies out of light pink fondant – her favorite job because it allows her to be creative.
For Athenna, who watched her parents struggle for so long, the change that came when they found housing and started their business has been profound.
She never thought they’d end up here, Athenna said. “I’m really proud.”
