Cassidy never expected to become an expert in survival and resilience, but life taught her quickly. After losing her job and housing in 2019, she spent ten months living out of her car, learning how to navigate a world she had never experienced before. That chapter ended when CATCH gave her the keys to stable housing, and with it the chance to rebuild her life.
That chance at stability allowed her to reconnect with her son, welcome her daughter into a safe home, and pursue her education. Today, Cassidy is a mom, a master’s student, and the founder of ResourceLink Idaho, a nonprofit she created to help others navigate resources more easily than she once had to.
Before CATCH
Following a tumultuous divorce, Cassidy found herself separated from her child, in a new city, with a new job.
“Around that same time, a guy came into my life and started causing me a lot of problems,” she shares. This relationship led to her being fired from her job three days after Christmas in 2018, and losing her housing the following month. Without her family’s support as her safety net, Cassidy’s unemployment and the loss of her housing led her to experiencing homelessness in her car for a period of ten months.
“I had to learn how to be homeless. Because I didn’t know how to be homeless, I’d never been homeless before. I had to find out where to park, where to find food, how to get gas, how to shower,” she shares. She remembers finding places to escape the summer heat were some of her biggest struggles. She would often seek out places in the shade to park, and she would spend the nights parked at Cabelas where travelers were invited to stay overnight.
“One day, a truck driver from there approached me,” she shared. “She brought me coffee from Starbucks and asked if I was homeless. I told her I was, and she spent time talking with me and encouraging me to keep going. Her act of compassion was a lifeline for me that day, and it’s a memory I’ll cherish forever.”
Cassidy shared that outside of that interaction, she most felt invisible. And she preferred it that way. “The lack of hygiene erodes your self-esteem, making it harder to face the world,” she shares. The emotional toll of homelessness was a constant battle. She especially remembers the excruciating pain of being separated from her family and children. “The physical distance from my loved ones was a constant ache, an unrelenting reminder of what I had lost. The helplessness and heartbreak of not being there for my child, missing their daily life, and knowing they were growing up without me, compounded the already overwhelming sense of despair.”
To self-soothe, Cassidy spent her days painting and searching Google for any resources in Boise that could support her getting out of homelessness. One night, she found CATCH.
“At first, I thought it was a scam, there was absolutely no way an organization like this existed,” she recalls, “ But I also remember thinking to myself that I had nothing to lose. So the next day I called.”
After connecting with CATCH, Cassidy was put on the waitlist. Soon after, Cassidy shares it was a blistering day in August when she felt she had reached the end of her rope. In desperation, she dialed her mom and begged her to help. Unfortunately, her mom responded that there was nothing she could do to help. Cassidy shared that moment felt like an overwhelming climax where she felt the despair of missing her son, the heartache of being separated from her family, the lingering fear of an abusive partner, and the sweltering summer heat and felt she might not be able to go on.
In what she calls a “twist of fate” it was during that same phone call with her mom that someone else was trying to reach her. She opened up her phone and saw that it was CATCH who had been trying to call. She was next on their list and they were ready to support her in securing housing of her own.
During CATCH
Cassidy was paired with Jesse as her caseworker, and she says she remembers going into CATCH to get evaluated and feeling so scared to share her situation. She shares that told herself to be honest, and that she felt empowered by her caseworker’s response to her honesty.
“I remember talking about my strengths and barriers with Jesse, and then making steps on those goals,” Cassidy shares. “I even still look back on the goals because she would email me my case plans, and I still have a couple of them. It’s interesting how they evolve over time.”
In October 2019, Cassidy was given the keys to her own apartment. “I will never forget that moment for as long as I live. That was probably one of the most special and biggest outside of my kids being born, because there was a time where I had no idea what I was going to do. I had no idea how I was going to get out of literal rock bottom, and just being in the back of my car at night, sleeping or praying or crying, thinking this is it for me, I’m never going to do anything with my life. There’s no way I can do it by myself.”
She shares that the transition from living in her car to having a safe apartment of her own felt surreal, “like stepping into a different world where I could finally breathe again.”
Once in stable housing of her own, Cassidy and Jesse continued to work on her goals. Having a safe place to call home allowed Cassidy to focus on reconnecting with her son, securing additional supportive systems, and preparing for the birth of her daughter, Laney. These concrete steps helped Cassidy build the foundation she needed to maintain stable housing and care for her growing family.
Cassidy has since felt called to use her story to empower others who had been in similar situations. “We know that she will continue to be a positive impact and light for people in our community,” Jesse shares.
After CATCH (six years later)
Cassidy officially graduated from the CATCH program in July 2019. Now, six years since being housed with the support of CATCH, Cassidy continues to live in the apartment that CATCH helped her secure. She received her associates degree in social work from the College of Western Idaho and her Bachelors at Lewis-Clark State College where she was on the President’s list and a member of the honors society. Today, she is in school to receive her Masters degree in Human Development from Louisiana State University. She credits her educational journey as a cornerstone of her stability and progress, and shares that it has led her to better understand how stable housing has enhanced her mental health.
“When I look back to when I was living in my car, I was just a wreck,” she shares. “Not only was I wrecked inside, but you could tell I was a wreck on the outside. That’s been the longest most satisfying journey, just getting my mind back. Going from such confusion and chaos to such clarity.”
She also shares how surreal it is to have moved into her apartment with just the things she had in her car, and to be able to look around her apartment today and see how it’s been transformed into a home as a reminder of how far she has come. Stable housing has allowed her to rebuild her relationship with her son, Brody, who she was separated from while she was experiencing homelessness. She also has a young daughter who was born after she moved into her apartment. Today, she sees her home as a sanctuary where she and her children can make memories together.
“It’s been fun making memories, having that foundation for my kids, because having a home for them is not only the stability, but it’s the ability to make memories with them that are happy,” she shares. “Of course, life is stressful in general, but it’s a little less stressful when you have your basic needs met.”
Cassidy shares that even though Laney was born after she was housed, Laney is curious about Cassidy’s experience. “When she hears me talking to people, I relate a lot back to ‘when I was homeless.’ But she hears these things and sometimes we’ll be in the car and she’ll ask me, ‘Mama, did you sleep there when you lived in your car?’”
Today, Cassidy has the same car as she did when she was experiencing homelessness. But now, she and her children have a safe and stable place to come home to. Cassidy says these days she’s a homebody. “I think being a homebody is great because I have a home where I can be a body in it and I love it.”
She shares that the little things have deeper meaning to her now. “Knowing that next month I’m going to be okay on food, I have enough food for my kids, my bills are going to be paid, not once have I ever had to worry about my lights getting shut off. And every time I get any bill, I always think about that. Like, thank God I have the ability to do this because I couldn’t always do it.”
Cassidy has started her own nonprofit organization called Resource Link, which was created to help individuals get connected to critical resources in our community. And in another interesting twist of fate, Cassidy shares that on the night before she received the keys to her new apartment, she slept in the Walmart parking lot down the road from her new house. Now, six years later, in a full circle moment, she received a grant from that same Walmart branch to get her nonprofit up and running.
“Our slogan is: ‘every link matters.’ So we are linking people to organizations, organizations to organizations and so on,” Cassidy shares. You can learn more about Resource Link on their website: https://www.resourcelinkidaho.org/
Today, Cassidy continues to enjoy spending time with her children and using her story to advocate for others experiencing homelessness or in similar positions. She is an advocate, confident in her purpose and constantly keeping an eye out for helping others, a mindset that she continues to pass on to her children.
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