How a Veteran’s Path Out of Homelessness Became Another Source of Uncertainty
On a humid May afternoon, Yvonne LeMon signed a one-year lease on an apartment in Philadelphia, believing a federally funded program would cover her rent and support her transition from homelessness. By June, she was already confronting a new threat: her housing, she learned, might vanish months before her lease ended — not because she had failed, but because no one had told her how the program really worked.
LeMon had arrived at the apartment after months of living in her minivan and cycling through temporary shelters. She was not new to instability, but she believed this moment marked a turn.
The program she entered — Supportive Services for Veteran Families, or SSVF — was designed to do more than place someone indoors. It was supposed to stabilize people long enough for them to rebuild: help with rent, utilities, transportation, employment, and legal support. For LeMon, the lease represented a fragile but deliberate bet that the system would hold up its end.
The first signs of trouble surfaced almost immediately. As LeMon settled into the apartment, she learned that some of the basic supports she had assumed were included were not guaranteed at all.
Utility costs, she was told, were her responsibility. Assistance with transportation, employment, or legal matters existed mostly as referrals — something to be discussed later. The contradictions were subtle at first, easy to rationalize in the relief of finally having a door that locked.
Then the emails began to arrive. They were formal, administrative, and increasingly urgent, focused on recertification requirements she did not fully understand. The language carried an unspoken warning: without updated paperwork, financial assistance could stop. LeMon had signed a one-year lease. What she did not yet know was that the rent support behind it was capped at nine months — a timeline she says was never explained to her before she moved in.
When ‘Housing First’ Comes with Conditions
Programs like SSVF are part of a broader federal strategy known as the Housing First approach, which prioritizes moving people quickly into permanent housing without requiring treatment, employment, or sobriety upfront. The idea is to prevent short-term crises from hardening into long-term homelessness by pairing temporary rental assistance with case management and referrals for work, transportation, and other supports.
Under SSVF, local providers can cover rent, utilities, and related housing costs on a month-to-month basis, as long as participants remain eligible and complete regular recertifications. Advocates of the model say it works best when its timelines and conditions are clearly understood; when they are not, the same system meant to provide stability can introduce new forms of uncertainty.
“I would not have signed the lease if they had told me upfront,” LeMon said. “If someone had said, ‘This is month-to-month, and it ends after nine months,’ I would’ve said no. I felt safer in my van.”
Stability with Strings Attached
For years, LeMon had lived nomadically, intentionally avoiding housing systems she experienced as bureaucratic and destabilizing. Housing in Philadelphia, she said, had long felt inaccessible. Living in her vehicle offered a kind of autonomy — one that came with hardship, but also predictability. Entering the program, she hoped, would finally allow her to stabilize and focus on work.
Instead, she found herself navigating a stream of fragmented disclosures: rent paid month to month, recertifications that could interrupt assistance, and conditions she says were never put in writing before she committed to the lease. She says she never signed a program agreement outlining the duration or limits of support — only the lease itself.
The pressure compounded. LeMon struggled to keep her car insured and operational, cutting off access to gig work that had sustained her while unhoused. She said repeated, unannounced emails and calls — sometimes framed as warnings that rent payments could stop — left her anxious and unable to plan.
“Who wants to live like that?” she said. “You wonder why unhoused people don’t want to get into these programs — this is why.”
A Program Built on Recertification
In a written response to questions, the Veterans Multi-Service Center, which administers SSVF locally, said it could not discuss individual cases without participant consent. The organization described SSVF as a short-term federal program governed by Department of Veterans Affairs guidelines. Assistance, the organization said, is provided on a monthly basis, contingent on eligibility, participation, and 90-day recertifications, with maximum limits on rental and other forms of support per enrollee.
According to the payment schedule LeMon eventually received, January is the final month of rental assistance — even though her lease extends beyond that date. Without a new source of income or an extension, she could be responsible for rent she cannot afford.
LeMon continues to file grievances and request records, hoping for clarity or intervention before the deadline arrives. For now, the apartment remains hers — and the future, unresolved.