Homeless family finally has a home

Published 11:08 pm Tuesday, July 14, 2009

EVERETT — Braydon Hamilton stands on the stoop surveying his yard, cold rain soaking his bare feet. Inside, he plays hide and seek, dashing up the stairs and diving onto the beige carpet in Grandma’s walk-in closet. In the living room, he shouts, just to shout.

He’s home.

Finally home.

“This is probably the nicest house ever — the biggest and nicest,” the 8-year-old says, gazing out the window of his second-story bedroom. “It’s a really, really, really fun house.”

For the last year and a half, Braydon has been homeless.

He’s lived in motels, in a relative’s home and in a transitional apartment owned by the YWCA.

He was among the 1,670 Snohomish County students classified as homeless this past school year. That’s a 14 percent increase over the previous year.

Experts believe that the recession has led to a huge rise in the number of homeless students across the country.

Braydon’s grandmother and legal guardian, Judy Burns, had a steady job as a bus driver for years. She owned a home and had enrolled Braydon in Catholic school, before a series of mishaps left her short on cash and without a place to stay.

For the last year, she lived with Braydon and his 4-year-old sister, Ember, in a transitional housing complex in Lynnwood. They were supposed to vacate their apartment by July 1, but Burns had trouble finding a place close to Braydon’s school, Discovery Elementary, that would accept Section 8 housing vouchers. She looked at 28 houses and apartments without luck.

When it became clear Burns wouldn’t have a place to go in July, the YWCA gave her an extension. Last week, the organization paid for a hotel room for the family on Highway 99.

Burns, 58, had just about given up hope when she decided to call the landlord of a house she had yearned for the past three months. She discovered the three-bedroom gray house a while ago as she drove Braydon to school, but it was out of her price range. When she called back, the price had dropped — and Burns rushed over to tour it. She begged the landlord to accept her application.

She was ready to move in early last week, but, like many homeless people, she didn’t have enough money saved up for the deposit. YWCA staff helped her negotiate an agreement to pay the deposit next month.

On Friday, she got the keys.

“I love the space,” she said, standing in the upstairs hallway. “I love the quiet. I love that the kids can run and they don’t have to be quiet. This is so me. This is where I was before. I feel like I’m back to where I’m supposed to be.”

Without furniture, Burns and her grandchildren spent their first night huddled under blankets on the bedroom floor. They told scary stories and marveled at how dark it got without street lamps.

While the family waits for volunteers to move their belongings into the new home, they’ve continued sleeping on the floor. But they don’t mind. Burns said her grandkids are more enthusiastic and energetic now that they have a home. They wake ready to go, instead of laying around moping.

Braydon already has plans for a clubhouse with an attached umbrella in the family’s narrow back yard. He was excited to discover potato bugs and snakes living under a mat outside. Ember has her bedroom all mapped out.

“I like it ’cause there’s a upstairs and we have our rooms upstairs,” Ember said. “Mine is the hugest.”

Burns plans to stay in the house forever, but there are no guarantees.

Each month, she must pay $558 in rent. She plans to use her retirement money from Community Transit. Government housing vouchers pay the remainder of the $1,350 rent. She has a one-year lease.

Around 75 percent of homeless people who find stable housing remain off the streets once they are settled into a permanent home. The remaining quarter don’t make it, said Cathy MacCaul, an associate director with the YWCA in Seattle.

A few weeks ago, Burns was worried her family would never have a permanent home. Now she’s adamant that they won’t be homeless again.

“Oh yeah, I’m definitely finished,” she said, as she watched Braydon and Ember run through the living room. “I’m going to stay here as long as I can.”

Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292, kmanry@heraldnet.com.

Homeless kids

Eight-year-old Braydon Hamilton was featured in a story in The Herald in June on the growing number of homeless kids in Snohomish County and across the nation. To read that story, go to cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet and search for Braydon Hamilton.