Every morning when he wakes up, the first thing 3-year-old Sai’chaun does is scramble down the stairs of his mother’s townhouse and race to the window to see if his two best friends – Bobby, 4, and Laila, 3 – are up yet.
Left-right: Heaven and Shay in front of their shared front porch, with kids Bobby, Laila, and Sai’chaun. (Credit: Michael B. Maine)
The two families living at Solid Ground’s Sand Point Housing share a front porch and are often mistaken for one big family – which they are, in all the ways that matter. When the kids aren’t racing around the playground on tricycles and Power Wheels just feet from their homes, they eat meals and ride the school bus together.
“Our kids are inseparable,” says Heaven McDowell, Sai’chaun’s mother. “They literally wake up asking about each other. They have to say good night every night.”
Lashaye “Shay” Perkins, Bobby and Laila’s mom, says, “There’s nothing we don’t do together. They have the tightest, closest bond ever. I just love how close they are.”
“Our kids are inseparable,” says Heaven. Shay agrees: “There’s nothing we don’t do together.”
~Two Sand Point Housing moms
The neighbors are among the nearly 200 families and individuals who live at Sand Point at any given time while building new lives and futures after experiences with homelessness.
Residents have access to a range of services – including case management, behavioral health care, youth development programs, and peer support groups – but many say the community of neighbors at Sand Point is just as important.
Neighbors look after each other’s kids, help get them to appointments, and look out for resources they can all use. “I don’t have anyone else walking me through this,” says Heaven, who like Shay is a single mother. “But if I need to step away for a moment to take a deep breath, here comes Shay to pick up where I Ieft off.”
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Heaven and Shay followed very different journeys to Sand Point, but they’ve both experienced trauma and loss that left them raising their young children largely on their own. Shay moved to Sand Point four years ago after she escaped an abusive relationship only to find herself living in a car with a small child and another on the way. Heaven, who had lived at Sand Point as a child, saw Shay occasionally over the years while visiting her mother.
Sai’chaun sports his new backpack from a Back to School event. (Credit: Rachael Green)
Then Heaven came back to live at Sand Point last spring after two deaths in her life left her struggling. She moved into her mother’s apartment, which shares a front porch with Shay, and the two quickly bonded, especially after Shay had a seizure and Heaven – whose sister has epilepsy – jumped in to help.
Ever since then, the two mothers have been able to lean on each other whenever things become too much. Shay says, “Yeah, we walk around and we smile, but I have times when I just have to break down and cry.”
This past summer, the three kids could often be found zooming around the playground, munching on snacks and free summer meals at the community center across the way, or joining in water balloon fights and other activities organized by Solid Ground staff. Through free meals, activities, and celebrations, Solid Ground fosters a community of support where neighbors connect and look after one another.
“I don’t have anyone else walking me through this. But if I need to step away for a moment to take a deep breath, here comes Shay to pick up where I Ieft off.”
~Heaven, Sand Point Housing mom
And that’s exactly what happened earlier this year when Heaven began experiencing an episode of severe depression. In the end, she says it was Shay and her kids who got her past it. “She helped me through something I could not do myself. She and her kids – especially her kids – brought me out of a very dark place. I can’t think of one day of the summer, from start to finish, when I was sad. I didn’t have time to be sad.”
“Especially being a single parent, it can be hard,” Shay says. “Being able to have an outlet – someone who understands where you’re coming from – that can go a long way.” Heaven and Shay say that’s what they found in each other – and in community at Sand Point Housing.
Pure joy was infectious at a summer party for the Sand Point residents.
Image at top: Sai’chaun, his mom Heaven, and their neighbor mom Lashaye share a joyful moment during a Sand Point Housing summer party. (All summer party photos by Rachael Green)
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