INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — On one of the coldest night this week, Marcy Jackson and her family had nowhere to go, until Community Services League stepped up.
"I can’t help being in this situation," Jackson said
The nonprofit, also known as CSL, provides immediate relief to people in need. In this case a voucher for lodging.
"We don't look at it necessarily as a one-time assist. We look at it as the hope of the start of a relationship," Doug Cowan, President & CEO of Community Services League said.
Jackson ended up staying at Days Inn hotel on Noland Road in Independence, but she says things quickly went south after some of their belongings went missing.
"Somebody told me someone went through and took some of my stuff," Jackson said. "I went to the office and asked, 'Well can we go and get my stuff?' They said I would have to get the police involved and I did that. Then they decided they didn’t want me there."
Marcy says when the hotel learned about her pets, they asked her to leave.
When she didn’t, management called police.
"Well, the cops threatened to take my kids from me and call DCF because I had nowhere to go and no money and I called Misty [Brown] for her help," Jackson said.
Brown once experienced homelessness herself.
"You go through the depression of losing everything, and then you go through the hopelessness of I can’t do any better, until you get mad enough that you want to fight your way out of it," Misty Brown said.
When she heard about Jackson's plight, she opened her doors.
"I had somebody who helped me and so if I can help find that other person, that’s who I am, it’s inside of me, it’s a calling," Brown said.
CSL is now working with Jackson to find her family another place to stay.
"This particular case is a reminder that we can connect with all of our hotel partners, and have a discussion of what if there is a challenging situation, a situation you know, perhaps there is a possible violation of hotel policy?," Cowan said. "What are the steps that we can mediate so that we don't end up in a case where a family is displaced."
With a lot of hotel rooms booked for Sunday's Chiefs playoff game, Jackson may not be able find one until Monday, and so in the meantime they’ll be staying with Brown.
