Homeless mom, kids find a home

Heidi and her kids are homeless no more.

She’s the Wichita woman who lived in her truck with her young sons until recently. Her story inspired many people to donate to her and to other homeless schoolchildren in Wichita.

“I’m so blessed,” she said Friday. “And to everyone who helped me, I’m so grateful.”

She’d been sleeping with the boys in her pickup at area truck stops from September until mid-December, driving there after work, and after she picks up her 1-year-old from his babysitter and her 5-year-old from his school. Now she’s saved enough to rent an apartment.

A Dec. 16 story in The Eagle described her plight and those of others.

The Wichita school district identifies and tries to help anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 homeless students in its schools every year. It had found 1,549 students by mid-December, including Heidi’s 5-year-old, 10 high school students living on the streets and 60 more high-schoolers “couch surfing” with friends or relatives.

There were 28 students sleeping outside or in cars, abandoned buildings or campgrounds, said Cynthia Martinez, who runs the homeless student education office in Wichita’s school district. There were six mothers with kids besides Heidi living in cars, district officials said.

After the story ran, so many people called or wrote wanting to help that the district set up a partnership with Gracepoint Church in west Wichita to handle donations.

Heidi did not want her full name used for this story.

People came forward to buy her and her children nights in area motels, including during recent cold weather.

“And some people at the location I work at, they put two and two together and realized the story was about me,” she said. “So some people started a pot for me, and my boss and his wife adopted my kids for Christmas, and they had a really good Christmas.

Heidi hopes to move into the new apartment starting this weekend, but more probably by next weekend, she said. They still lack much, she said: dishes and furniture, for example. But with the help of others, they’ve got beds and clothes.

This story was originally published December 31, 2016 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Homeless mom, kids find a home."