Dear Santa: I'd Like a Home for Christmas - The Anything But Simple Life

Last year on Christmas, I woke up in an old, drafty RV that my husband and I had called “home” for almost three years. The RV had no electricity or running water. Only battery-powered lanterns and jugs of water we heated in a large pot on the camp stove we used to warm the interior of the RV.

It wasn’t like the previous two Christmases when we’d made the best of our unhoused circumstances and patted ourselves on the back for our small celebrations. Last year we were months into an unsuccessful housing search and I was losing hope with each day that passed. My most desperate wish was to be living in one of the many vacant units in our city.

I was done being homeless.

My wish was granted about six weeks later when we got the call that our application approval had gone through and we could move in that day – not even the surprise snowstorm that hit the city stopped us from sleeping in our new home that night.

But getting off the streets didn’t mean smooth sailing for us afterward. A few weeks after we got settled, my husband finally went into treatment for his addiction (recovery is basically impossible when someone is unhoused). We’ve gone through hell as he’s learned how to live sober, while I still show up in my professional life the way I need to.

Like many others, I suffered a major financial loss in my freelancing career a few months ago. The fears that kept me up each night were:

We’d be forced to return to the streets – only this time without an RV for shelter.
My husband would relapse.
We might not escape homelessness alive a second time.

Thankfully, a just-in-time opportunity presented itself yesterday that should carry us financially for a while as I continue to job search. For now, we’re no longer in danger of losing our home, and it’s a temporary relief from the constant stress I’ve been under for months.

Yesterday I could finally let myself start to feel the joy of the season. Even though there was no money to buy each other anything this year, it’s still going to be the best Christmas I’ve had in a very long time.