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Amelia reaches to gently pet the fluffing feathers of her baby parrot Sunshine. Her brilliant orange, yellow and green feathers puff up in happiness as she moves her head around, signaling her content.
Amelia maneuvers around her one-bedroom cottage in a push wheelchair. Her bedroom has enough room for a twin bed, Sunshine's cage and perch and a vanity that is strewn with makeup and lotions. The living room has a couch, a kitchen table and a corner shelf filled with paints, brushes, and a few painted canvases. Every canvas has a flower scape – beautiful colors and symmetry. The bathroom is also covered in painted canvases – except for the shower, which is filled with a shower chair to accommodate Ameila's needs.
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Quinn Cottages is tucked away on a forgotten street just north of downtown Sacramento, between Women's Empowerment and the North A Street shelter. It is fully fenced and secure, but when you walk into the unassuming community, the colorful bungalows are beautiful and eye-catching. Flowerpots and windchimes cover tiny porches and patches of grass. Residents lounge around in the communal spaces – one person totes a laundry basket to the machines near the front of the compound. Another puts a dollar into a soda machine. A small black dog barks protectively at each person who walks by while perched on his owner's lap.
The cottages are clustered in a series of small neighborhoods, each oriented around a shared common space. The perimeter is fenced, monitored with a security system, and has controlled front gate access. A central community building houses a computer room, a library/small conference room, a multipurpose room, and a community kitchen. Residents participate in a rigorous and comprehensive two-year program from which they graduate. The campus is funded through Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA), which is partially funded by Sacramento County, and operated by Mercy Housing.
To qualify for a referral to Quinn Cottages, residents must have a disability – either physically or mentally. In Ameila's case, she is mostly wheelchair-bound – from a car accident that nearly took her life, but instead, drastically changed everything about her and her future.
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Ameila came to Sacramento when she was 15 – placed out of San Francisco into a group home for foster children. Ameila is a self-described jack of all trades. She was a singer, a bartender – she loved to goldmine. “I gave those boys a run for their money! I always find gold." Her favorite spot is up near Bear River.
She had a dream to be on American Idol – a beautiful singing voice, only heard now in saved files on her phone. Ameila was going to school to be a nurse – until her life was turned upside down. Nearly three years ago, Amelia was driving in a convertible BMW when she was hit by a tow truck. The accident was horrific – part of the windshield frame went into her forehead; her windpipe was crushed and her spine fractured. First responders performed a tracheotomy just to help her breathe. She lay in the hospital, in a coma for days. While in a coma, Amelia suffered two strokes, leaving the left side of her body weak. Doctors planned to take her off life-support, but a friend insisted she would get better and wake up. And she did wake up – but she was severely injured, permanently.
The singing voice she once had was forever damaged, the left side of her body was weak and useless, and her legs were unable to hold up her body. She needed full-time care. She lived with her father, whom she had been caretaking for before the accident. They hired an in-home caretaker for Amelia, but after they started abusing her, Amelia fired the caretaker. Amelia, without a job, insurance money to fall back on, and no trust in other people, became homeless.
Amelia was able to get into a shelter quickly – her various disabilities made her highly vulnerable outside. But an empty promise from a boyfriend to move into a hotel, causing her to self-exit the shelter, again left her on the streets with few resources and nowhere to go.
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Amelia's situation represents the greatest fear – many people are just one major life curveball away from homelessness. Disabled, homeless and desperate, Amelia used drugs to numb the pain of her accident – physically, emotionally, and mentally. Drugs were her escape from the nightmare her life had become, but also the deep scars of her upbringing. A mother who never loved her, children who had been put into the system and dream after dream shattered through bad decisions and bad relationships.
Six months ago, Amelia went into the Salvation Army shelter – again, a chance to shelter safely while pursuing recovery and stability. But Amelia knew she blew it again when they found drugs on her person. She was exited from the shelter for violating the rules. She moved out onto the American River Parkway. It was there she met Jenny, an outreach worker with Community HealthWorks, formerly Sacramento Covered. Jenny and her colleagues do outreach and engagement to unhoused people, specifically on the Parkway – a priority funded by the Board of Supervisors to help alleviate the burden on both the campers and the environment.
Considering Amelia's history and disabilities, Jenny worked with Amelia on an application for Quinn Cottages. It took nearly six months of consistent work with Amelia, following up on her application, making sure she had all her documents in place and getting adequate health care for treatment of her injuries before a bungalow opened up at Quinn Cottages.
Before Amelia could move in, she suffered another injury – a broken foot. The day that Community HealthWorks workers came to move her out of her tent and into her own apartment – they had to lift her out of her tent because she couldn't move. It truly does take a village of compassionate, dedicated people to help the most vulnerable.
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Amelia sits, grateful and peaceful as she looks around her cottage. “It is safe and secure here. There are rules and structure. People can't just come in here without permission." She putts around the compound in a power wheelchair. Her friend Larry, also in a power wheelchair, challenges her to a friendly race. They zip ahead, laughing.
She is clean and sober – knowing that she cannot succeed here if she uses. She wants to go to art school and maybe teach others how to paint. Maybe it will bring them the same peace it brings her. She enjoys cooking for herself and getting together with the other residents of Quinn Cottages. “We're a community." Her sister comes and visits her every week. Amelia is only 49 years old – despite her disabilities, she has so much life ahead of her. She is ready to make the most of it.