Fall 2006 Update

The DeBose and Navarro Families: Fall 2006 Update

The Coalition is assisting the DeBose family -- Noel and Denise and their high-school aged sons Brian and Stephen and college-aged Noel Jr. They were displaced from their New Orleans hometown by Hurricane Katrina and initially lived with relatives in the Santa Clarita Valley while working hard to rebuild their lives and careers back home.

Read more about the DeBoses in this Oct. 8, 2005 article and Oct. 20, 2005 followup from The Signal.

Coalition members continued working to assist the family in 2006. In the spring, Denise and her sons moved into a townhome in Valencia, with the Coalition paying their rent. Brian and Stephen completed their second semester at Valencia High; Noel Jr. his first at College of the Canyons. Denise accepted a position as a special education teacher in Castaic for the spring semester.

During summer vacation, Denise returned to New Orleans to rejoin husband Noel. He had stayed in the New Orleans area, kept a good job at Lockheed, and begun to rebuild their home. As of September, the home was approximately 80% completed. Denise, offered several local positions during her visit, accepted one for the fall at Bethune Elementary School in the Orleans Parish School District.

The Coalition is also assisting the Navarro family, also displaced by the hurricanes and now living in the Santa Clarita area, by covering their rent, phone, food, gasoline, gas and electric bills from January through December 2006, while the family rebuilds their income and considers their options.