The Women’s Housing Coalition provides permanent, affordable, service-enriched housing to women and families experiencing homelessness. WHC started serving Baltimore since 1979, and the program has grown from a small group of living units to four single room occupancy (“SRO”) buildings housing over 100 residents, and a portfolio of additional scattered site housing units to serve additional individuals and families.
When distance learning was mandated in Baltimore City in March because of the pandemic, WHC knew it was imperative to find family’s devices and Internet access for the students in our program. Witnessing all the ways lack of Internet access negatively impacts our residents throughout this pandemic has been a harsh reminder that bridging the digital divide must become a priority to organizations like ours who provide direct services. One of our smaller SRO buildings, The Linden House, houses several of our families with children who needed devices and access to a Wi-Fi signal strong enough to allow all of those devices to operate optimally at the same time. To serve this particular need in time for the start of the 2020-2021 school year – which returned to distance learning – WHC had The Linden House wired for high-speed Wi-Fi access, and acquired devices for all the students in our program.
We are extremely grateful to Dachon Carroll, the case manager for the families at the Linden House. She worked tirelessly to get devices for all our students in that building. Additionally, she got devices for students in our scattered site units as well, navigating all kinds of hurdles and red tape. The level of care and service she provides our residents is outstanding, and exemplifies what we mean when we speak of the “service enriched housing” we offer our residents. We also want to thank Tommy Watkins of Ur Camera Guy, who wired the Linden House location quickly and effectively to allow those residents to have Wi-Fi in time for the start of the school year.
It is our plan to continue to prioritize digital equity by seeking out funding to wire our remaining SRO buildings so that they too can have high-speed Internet access. This will greatly enhance the quality of life for our residents – they will be able to more easily apply for jobs, to apply for benefits like unemployment, to take online courses, to bank online, to order prescriptions, or to have doctor’s visits via telemedicine. We look forward to the day when the Women’s Housing Coalition will be able to give all those we serve access to the technology that is so important in this day and age.
