This is an inspiring story about a resident formerly of Upper Valley haven, a VAHC resident, who is now thriving because of the affordable housing available through Twin Pines Housing Trust.
Before Samantha Sharkey moved into Quechee Pines, an affordable housing project managed by the Twin Pines Housing Trust that was reopened last month, life was a lot harder for the 30-year-old single mother of two boys. In 2004, she graduated high school and, eager to improve herself, took out a loan to enroll at the New England School of Hair Design in West Lebanon. “I was leaving Rutland at 7:30 a.m. I would get to school for 8:30 a.m. It started at 9 a.m.,” she said. “I would get to work at 4 p.m. at Dominos, work until sometimes 1:30 in the morning, drive all the way back to Rutland, sleep for a few hours until 6:30 a.m., and then drive back and do the same thing. Over and over.” By 2012 — after eight years of floating from apartment to apartment and working long hours at a variety of low-paying service-sector jobs, a split from her husband left her homeless.
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