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SALT LAKE CITY — Catherine Trujillo arrived at the Road Home three months ago with her teenage son and young granddaughter.
"It's really tough," she said, when it comes to raising children at the Salt Lake family homeless shelter.
Trujillo lost her home after a cancer diagnosis buried her in medical bills. She's grateful for the help at the shelter, but eager to move on to a more positive chapter for her family.
"You feel that you've let your children down," she said as tears welled up in her eyes. "You feel that you're incomplete as a parent, that you can't provide for them the way they need to be."
Homelessness among families in Salt Lake continues to rise. In the last five years, the number of homeless families staying at the Road Home shelter has tripled. In the past year alone there has been a 7 percent rise.
Right now, there are 70 children living at the Road Home. Like every other child in our community, they'd like new clothes and school supplies for the school year. These families can't make that happen. So, the shelter and community businesses step up to help.
The Road Home Apple Tree Campaign collects new back- to-school clothing and supplies so kids at the shelter can hold their heads high in the halls at school. Many are embarrassed about living at the shelter and don't want their classmates to know. The clothes and school supplies give them a boost of self-esteem.
Christine Sepulveda, a mother of five, said it's stressful to worry how her kids will be treated at school. One of her daughters was verbally bullied because they live at the shelter. The chance to get back-to-school gear just like their peers thrills her.
"I just hope they are as excited as I am," she said. "I remember going to school, and I would lay out all my clothes: I'm going to wear this today, and that tomorrow."
Here's how it works: when you spot one of the Road Home Apple Trees, you select a paper apple with a child's name from the tree. It tells you what he or she needs. You buy those school supplies or clothes, leave them with the retailer, and the Road Home will pick up the supplies in mid August.
Celeste Eggert, director of development at the shelter, said they are always busy, but they never turn any families away.
"I've been with the agency for 15 years," Eggert said, "and I've never seen the number of families in need as we're serving right now."
But there's good news too.
"We're getting families out faster than we ever have before, and we're housing more families than we ever have," Eggert said.
Brenda Byrd is a grandmother of three, one of them a teen girl.
"She wants things that teenagers have," says Byrd. "I want to make sure she can have those things."
During the seven-year history of the Road Home Apple Tree campaign, more than 13,500 articles of clothing and school supplies have been donated, benefiting more than 380 children living in the shelter.
"It helps our kids forget what it's like to be homeless for one day," says Eggert.
The Road Home Apple Trees are located at DownEast, Payless ShoeSource, Salt Lake area Staples, Sanctuary Day Spa and Intrepid. The items, which should be new and unused, can be donated at any of the 35 campaign partner locations from Provo to Ogden. At the completion of the campaign, which runs through Aug. 13, the clothing and school supplies will be delivered to the Road Home before the school year begins.
