Casey's Story

Purchasing a home is something that many aspire to do one day. It is a challenge for anyone entering the home buyer’s market and is one of the most stressful things to do. Now, imagine being homeless. Imagine the dream of home ownership not applying to you.

That is exactly how Casey felt, but luckily the focus of the Volunteers of America Brunetti Lofts program is to take formerly homeless families and individuals and move them along the path to home ownership. Casey arrived in Denver in 2007, after growing up in a small town in California. She had some rough years and definitely fell in with the wrong crowd. Before long hanging out with the wrong crowd was turning into a lifestyle. She pushed away her family and severed relationships with loved ones. Then one day, she had enough and moved to Denver with her son, Christopher.

Casey and Christopher were in and out of transitional housing she even did a brief stint in rehab. And then something clicked and she got a job and was staying in a program called Champa House. It was shortly after this that she found out about Brunetti Lofts. Volunteers of America offered her the chance to stabilize, to learn about financial planning, improve parenting skills and even helped her save more money by partially matching some of the money she was saving for a house down payment.

Brunetti Lofts is somewhat unique in that it is a joint effort of the Volunteers of America and Mile High United Way. There is staff available to walk residents through all of the possible pitfalls of home ownership and independent living. Casey and Christopher moved into Brunetti in 2009, and moved out, into their very own home in December 2013.

Home takes on an entirely different meaning when you are home for the first time. Casey and Christopher were delighted to be in their house.

“I can’t even explain how easy this was,” Casey says. “I was able to save and I knew I was saving for a house. I was so surprised when I found out I could actually own a home.”