WEST SACRAMENTO —
A day after the closure of the Bridge Housing Program at Old Town Inn in West Sacramento, those still in the process of securing an apartment were moved to paid hotels.
“I barely got it at all so I was still clearing roadblocks until the final week so I was still up in the air,” Matthew Happle said.
Happle said he was the last of the 31 people in the program to secure a Section 8 housing voucher. He was prepared to move his belongings to a campground Friday, before organizers told him they would relocate him to another motel until he was approved for an apartment.
FOX40 asked Happle where he planned on moving to.
“Just somewhere near the water really, I came off the water I’d like to stay near the water,” Happle said.
The goal all along was to provide homeless men and women who’d been living along the Sacramento River with housing, counsel them individually, and keep them from returning to live at the river.
Last week FOX40 asked Christopher Cabaldon if he was worried about that possibility.
“The test of success is can we make a difference, not can we solve the whole thing all at once,” Cabaldon said.
Happle said he didn’t know of any people in the program that returned to the river.
“Because they had us sign a contract saying, that pretty much gave away our right to live by the river in order to be in this as a trade off,” Happle said.
Happle said going back was not an option, but moving forward was going to be easier now that he had resources.
“I still have the support group. Now I got the GAP program, the city and the county and if I’m smart enough to reach out when I need help like that, they’ll still be there for me,” Happle said.
