Meet the heart of Miami’s Homeless Helpline, finding joy responding to those in need: Helpline Navigator, Estebania de la Cruz
It’s impossible to know how many times in the last 10 years that Estebania de la Cruz was the sole source of hope for callers to the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust’s Homeless Helpline. But this much we know, it was her voice and kind words that encouraged callers to persevere through another day. Grateful for her service as part of the City of Miami’s Homeless Helpline, the 29-year-old is the first point of contact on the Homeless Helpline for thousands of individuals calling in their most desperate moment.
We sat down with Estebania to get a peek into who is behind the Helpline call team.
What's a day in your life like for you?
I come in and help clients with different requests. I take anywhere from 90 to 120 calls per day. And it varies…these calls can be from the general public reporting the location of someone who is experiencing homelessness or individuals who are homeless seeking information on available housing and service options.
I'm also the one responsible for distributing the available emergency shelter beds between the outreach workers’ requests and those registered in our system. Once we have beds available, I receive the client information from the outreach workers, I look into the vulnerability list, communicate with the shelters, and once we receive the approval, we will go ahead and place them into the shelter.
Last, I also work directly with shelters such as Salvation Army, Camillus House, and Miami Rescue Mission to assist clients who need to get birth certificates and Florida identification.
Tell us about the team you work with at the City of Miami’s Helpline.
There are about seven of us, and they really go above and beyond to try and help our clients. We try to give our all. Unfortunately, we only have so many resources to accommodate people, and we sometimes go weeks without available shelter beds. So, it's really hard when you're getting these calls and resources are limited.
Do you see an increase in calls from any particular demographic?
Yes! More senior citizens call now. With the increase in rent, a lot of elderly people are not able to afford to pay anymore. And some of the landlords don't really care. The situation is that if you can't pay, you have to go. There was a case last year when this elderly lady, I think she was 90 years old, had lived in the same home for 30 or 40 years, and they put her out because they wanted to raise the rent, and she couldn't afford it. I was helping her figure out her next steps.
You made a career of a very difficult job. What compelled you to stay so long?
I would say because I really just love my job and the fact that I'm able to help people. It's like a sense of relief when you hear you were able to help people. Some of them when I place them into a shelter, I don’t even make contact with them, and they actually call me back to say, “Thank you so much. You changed my life.” So, it's just really nice to be able to help people. And it's just something in my heart when I'm able to help people and give them another chance.
We thank Estebania and the entire Helpline team for their incredibly hard work.
If you are a landlord and would like to help us relieve the backlog of clients in shelters, visit RentConnect.com. Find out about the benefits we have for landlords or property owners who are willing to rent their housing units to extremely low-income individuals and families in our homeless continuum of care.