It is a completely happy ending : Goats and Soda : NPR

In August 2023, we shared the story of a household of three from São Paulo who had misplaced every little thing as a result of pandemic. With no work, residence, automobile or meals, and their younger son positioned along with his grandmother, they struggled to outlive. They spent nights on the ground at a transit hub and infrequently discovered beds in a shelter.

A program known as Vila Reencontro allowed them to maneuver right into a transitional tiny residence and get entry to meals and social companies. Now, reunited, employed and settled right into a rental in a quiet neighborhood close to household, they’re steadily getting again on their toes.

We adopted as much as see how they’re doing now.

With fists held tight, Henrique rubs his eyes as he closes his bed room door and makes his technique to the kitchen to repair himself breakfast. The ten-year-old mumbles a “good morning” to his mother and pa as he passes by means of the lounge and offers his gray and white cat, affectionately named Psycho, a scratch on the pinnacle and beneath the chin.

Within the kitchen, he fills a glass with milk and scoops a heaping spoonful of chocolate powder into it earlier than giving it a stir and placing it within the microwave.

“He at all times makes his personal breakfast,” says his mother, Erica Lacerda de Souza, as she watches him from the kitchen doorway, her husband, Bruce Lee Sousa, nodding in settlement from the sofa within the adjoining front room. “It’s his job to maintain Psycho too. He places out his meals and water and makes certain the litter field is clear. I need him to be impartial and accountable.”

Only a 12 months in the past the trio was considered one of 37 households every of whom had been dwelling in a tiny home within the downtown São Paulo neighborhood of Anhangabaú. It was a part of a municipal program known as Vila Reencontro, impressed by New York’s Housing First program from the Nineteen Nineties and one of many methods the Brazilian metropolis of 12 million was making an attempt to assist its rising variety of unhoused individuals, notably through the pandemic, get again on their toes. This system gives households with tiny houses for as much as 36 months together with entry to meals and social companies.

All is misplaced

After they needed to shut their bodega due to pandemic rules and their different work dwindled — Lacerda de Souza’s as a cleaner and Lee Sousa’s at a automobile wash — they misplaced the home they rented and nearly every little thing in it. Whereas Henrique, who was then 6, was despatched to reside along with his maternal grandmother, the couple spent two weeks sleeping on the ground at São Paulo’s downtown Barra Funda Terminal — a central hub for metropolis transit — and months making their means by means of town’s shelter and different momentary housing techniques earlier than studying about Vila Reencontro and being provided a tiny residence.

There, Henrique was capable of reside with them once more, they usually had been offered a slew of different alternatives, together with assist discovering everlasting housing and jobs.

Simply six months after shifting to the 194-square-foot residence — barely smaller than a one-car storage — Lee Sousa was provided a spot in a piece program and began his job with town’s sanitation division — which he nonetheless has at this time — final September. The trio additionally benefited from a metropolis housing program that allowed them to flip by means of a listing of potential houses accessible to lease so they might select what can be one of the best match for his or her household.

A brand new starting

After seeing a number of choices, they determined to go along with their spacious residence within the east-end neighborhood of Guaianases, which they’ve now been in for about two months. It’s removed from downtown, however Lacerda de Souza says it’s what she prefers.

“I like dwelling in a quiet, household neighborhood,” she says. “Right here I can stroll to the grocery store, there’s a bakery across the nook and Henrique doesn’t have far to go to highschool. We’re rather a lot nearer to my mother’s home now too, so it’s simple for her to return go to or for Henrique to go spend time together with her.”

The housing program pays their lease for the following two years and has already helped them furnish their new residence, offering them with a desk, a mattress, armoires and a fridge. Different gadgets — like their sofa and range — they bought themselves, as they slowly rebuild what they misplaced. After two years, the household ought to be capable to pay their very own lease.

The household receives visits each different week from a program social employee, who has additionally helped them get entry to medical care – Lacerda de Souza has again ache from two herniated discs — and modify to their new circumstances.

“There are such a lot of small belongings you take as a right,” Lee Sousa says. “Like realizing the best way to plan your month-to-month grocery run. It’s been years since we had been in a position to try this ourselves. While you’re in shelters and even within the tiny residence, meals are simply served to you. Now we’ve got to relearn the best way to funds for what we want.”

The three like spending time collectively in the lounge, the place they typically lay the mattress from the couple’s bed room on the ground to allow them to watch films and TV exhibits collectively. Lee Sousa has a penchant for Indian movies, whereas Lacerda de Souza prefers exhibits like Supernatural and Henrique likes watching Cobra Kai.

Their new house is on the prime of a prolonged flight of stairs, and the household has already befriended their neighbors who reside within the different three flats off the lengthy stretch of hall. When Lee Sousa is at work and Henrique is at college, Lacerda de Souza likes to talk over espresso with the 2 younger girls who reside subsequent door. When Lee Sousa arrives, their youthful male neighbors are sometimes ready for him to speak one thing over or ask for recommendation.

And Henrique has been doing exceptionally properly at college, making new buddies shortly and by no means eager to miss a day. Each morning he takes his time doing his hair, ensuring the curls are good, earlier than his mother walks him to the nook, the place she watches him head up the road as a result of he doesn’t need his buddies to see that she’s with him.

“I assume he’s already getting too outdated for that,” she says with amusing.

A non secular revival

Their home, says Lacerda de Souza, isn’t empty now, and has grow to be a hub not just for household — weekend pasta nights are a favourite occasion — but in addition for his or her non secular neighborhood.

The household’s religion lies within the Afro-Brazilian faith known as Quimbanda, one of the stigmatized religions within the nation. On account of cultural misunderstanding and damaging stereotypes, they struggled to follow it whereas dwelling in shelters and the tiny residence for concern that others wouldn’t perceive.

However a small space off the lounge of their new residence has allowed them to return to working towards their religion, the place statues of saints and different sacred objects are on show to allow them to pray and meditate — at all times with the curtains drawn. Others from the neighborhood are sometimes there to do the identical, and a few keep over on the household’s new residence once they have nowhere else to go.

“Having your individual area is every little thing,” says Lacerda de Souza. “It’s liberating. And I’m at all times completely happy to assist others. The place would we be if no one had helped us?”

Jill Langlois is an impartial journalist primarily based in São Paulo, Brazil. She has been freelancing from the biggest metropolis within the western hemisphere since 2010, writing and reporting for publications like Nationwide Geographic, The New York Instances, The Guardian and Time. Her work focuses on human rights, the setting and the affect of socioeconomic points on individuals’s lives.