Season for Caring, Naquisha Taylor: Mother rebuilding family life after homelessness
When Naquisha Taylor closes her eyes and envisions what her new apartment could look like, she imagines something cozy and warm. She'd love to have a home full of laughter and conversation. It would be a place where she could spend more time with her four children.
Her two-bedroom apartment right now echoes empty without furniture, save for a small black futon in the back of the living room. There is no kitchen table for the family to gather for dinner or do homework No chairs to offer a visiting friend. And no beds yet for her children.
The East Austin apartment is a work in progress, and it's the opportunity for which Taylor has waited years. Taylor is a young mother who had been without a home for years.
Her 14-year-old son, Zavian, has moved in to live with her, and she hopes the rest of her children will move in soon. Dartavien, 16, Zaylon, 12, and Zylasha, 11, have been staying with her father and stepmother in Austin.
"The reason why I put them with my dad and my stepmom is the fact, whenever I was homeless, I didn't want them to be homeless out there with me," Taylor said. "So, instead, giving them somewhere to lay their head was the most important thing."
Taylor, 33, grew up in Post, a small town in West Texas. Taylor's mother passed away when she was 16, and, two months after, Taylor became a teen mom.
"I was scared, frustrated, happy, disappointed all in the same time. Because like I said, I was 16, just barely having my first baby and having my mother pass away, it was really, really big. I was going through a lot of emotions," Taylor said.
While she got pointers from her aunts and uncles on how to take care of her newborn, Taylor was, for much of it, alone. She had to juggle high school work, taking care of her baby, and taking care of her sister, who was 11 years old at the time.
"So I really didn't have a role model or anyone to help me through the ropes with taking care of a baby," Taylor said.
Taylor was again confronted with tragedy when her sister died in 2016 from lupus. After her sister's death, Taylor became homeless.
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Taylor went back and forth from Austin to her hometown. She'd save up what she could to take a Greyhound bus to make the five-hour trip from West Texas to visit her children in Austin. During that time, she saw her children about once every three to four months. Taylor said she missed things in her children's lives, like being at school with them and attending parent-teacher conferences.
She waited years for a federal Section 8 housing voucher, which helps very low-income families to afford safe housing. It took about seven months to find a landlord who would accept the voucher, during which she remained homeless through the winter months.
"There was not a lot of apartment places that would take in the voucher, or the voucher was too low," Taylor said.
"... It's like 'no, the voucher has to cover the full month's rent.' So we had to go through a lot of different places," Taylor said.
She moved into her apartment in April and works as a security officer at the Moody Center.
She's thankful she was able to find a network of services and kind people to help her find a place to live. The best part about having a place to live is the opportunity to spend time with her children, she said.
"I see our relationship growing deeper," Taylor said. "That's what I see. It wasn't so deep with me coming in once every three months. I was missing things. I was missing my daughter growing up, my sons. All those things.
"And now that I have somewhere to live, somewhere to call home, I cherish their relationships and making more memories with them," she said.
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The Taylor family's wishes:
New or gently used car; laptops for children to complete schoolwork at home; living room furniture including a sofa, smart TV, TV stand, coffee table, end tables, area rug, lamps, blankets, and pillows; bedroom furniture and king bedding, a bunkbed, bedside tables and twin bedding; queen bedding; dressers; bedroom area rugs; wall mirrors; towels for kitchen and bathroom; bathmats; hampers; shower curtains; cleaning supplies and sponges; above toilet shelf; small dining table and chairs; kitchen ware including a crockpot, hand mixer, pots and pans, plates and cups; silverware and cutlery; potholders; placemats and cloth napkins; TV trays; lap desks; small robotic vacuum like a Roomba; Swiffer Wet Jet; air purifier; humidifier; floor fan; decor to make a home including empty frames and plants; beads or bead set for her daughter who loves to make jewelry; Bluetooth speakers; soundproof headphones; mentorship to start a nonprofit resource center; gift cards to Target, Walmart, H-E-B Bed Bath and Beyond, Amazon, Uber and Lyft and gas cards.
Wish list available on Amazon.
Nominated by: Caritas of Austin, 611 Neches St., Austin, TX, 78701. 512-621-9327, caritasofaustin.org.
Its mission: We prevent and end homelessness for people in Greater Austin.
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Season for Caring, Caritas of Austin, Naquisha Taylor
