Holly Porter, the quadriplegic homeless woman who inspired and co-founded the first sanctioned, self-governed encampment in Sacramento County, moved into a Meadowview apartment last week following months of vociferous lobbying for local authorities to secure a permanent home for her.
For 10 months, Porter and her neighbors at Camp Resolution had repeatedly called on Sacramento leaders to house her; Porter and her family had actively sought housing for a year and a half.
“I’m very excited,” Porter said, sitting in her wheelchair in the sunny ground-floor unit, “but I just don’t think it’s actually sunk in yet.”
After months of delays, she had only just allowed herself to feel happy at the prospect of life indoors.
Porter had been living at Camp Resolution, an encampment on Colfax Street and Arden Way in Old North Sacramento. She and around 60 other residents won a formal lease from the city this spring, guaranteeing they wouldn’t be evicted from the site. Though the city has provided trailers, the camp has neither running water nor a connection to the electric grid.
This lack of basic necessities made life there difficult for Porter, who has limited mobility and is particularly vulnerable to bad weather.
Her neighbors at the camp as well as outside activists rallied around her. Their demands escalated after City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood and California Homeless Union attorney Anthony Prince signed a letter of understanding March 24 agreeing that the city would “work diligently and use all efforts” to house Porter within 45 days. Ultimately, 97 days elapsed before Porter received her new keys, and her supporters attended multiple City Council meetings to draw attention to her situation.
At last Tuesday’s council meeting, Crystal Sanchez, the president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, stepped up to the podium to urge leaders to move Porter into a permanent home.
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“If we can’t house Holly, who has a disability, who has an income, who has a mother who’s a caregiver,” she asked, “how can we house anybody who’s homeless?”
At the Meadowview complex last week, the mood was jubilant. Porter’s mother and full-time caregiver, Deborah Casillas, couldn’t stop smiling. Tracey Knickerbocker, Porter’s longtime case manager through the local nonprofit Hope Cooperative, toted three balloons, a shiny red potted anthurium in bloom and a salami-and-cheese platter with a big bow into the apartment.
Standing next to the balloons, Knickerbocker and Casillas hugged. “We did it,” Casillas said into Knickerbocker’s shoulder.
“Yes,” the case manager said. “You did.”
Next steps after permanent housing: Other basic needs
Now that she has a roof over her head, Porter said she’s looking forward to doing everything she couldn’t do because being unhoused presented an insurmountable roadblock. In particular, she was excited to get adequate health services.
“I didn’t get nothing when I was homeless,” she said. “That’s my biggest goal now, is to get all my medical back in place.”
Porter couldn’t get a physical therapist to treat her in her tent, even though she has a substantial disability. She couldn’t get a power wheelchair, or an electric lift to get her out of her hospital bed. Because they didn’t have permanent housing, Casillas could not get paid as Porter’s in-home supportive services worker, even though Porter needs full-time care.
Additionally, the search for housing and all the attendant bureaucratic hurdles had taken up a significant amount of Porter’s time and energy.
Once she gets a power wheelchair, she said, she’ll be able to move around the world much more easily.
“I don’t plan on staying in here just because I’m indoors,” she said.
Even on her move-in day, she had another bureaucratic problem to handle. Porter and Knickerbocker said the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency had agreed to cover her portion of her first month’s rent, but because she moved in on June 29, she had learned they would only cover the prorated rent for June — and not the $228 she’ll owe for the month of July.
Last Thursday, the two of them were trying to get Medi-Cal’s housing assistance program to cover the cost of July’s rent so that Porter would have more money to set up her new apartment.
And for Porter, the bigger fight wasn’t over: She said there are too many disabled people living on the streets, and too many barriers to getting them indoors. She plans to continue advocating for systemic change.
