On June 20 Donna Wood was told by her new landlord that she had to move out come July 1.

She had lived in her West Warwick apartment for over five years, without issue, she said, but after it was sold to new owners they decided that they wanted to keep the apartment she was living in for themselves.

Her family includes four children including her 15-month-old son Corey, who is severely disabled.

She didn’t know what to do.

She quickly went from having stable housing to facing the threat of homelessness.

“That one thing made my whole life crumble,” Wood said.

After speaking with her son Corey’s early interventionist she was able to connect with Ehren Hunt, a Housing Navigator with the Tricounty Community Action Agency.

Because of her circumstance she was able to get a temporary stay in a hotel, and a Section 8 Housing Voucher designated to give preference to those who are homeless.

On Tuesday Hunt called Wood’s story one of their “success stories,” saying that they were able to connect her with the services that she needed in order to get her into stable housing.

“Donna is an example of the homeless system that we have helped to design in Rhode Island actually working,” Hunt said.

But the reality is because of factors like there not being enough housing or shelters in Rhode Island not every story has a happy ending.

At the same time that Wood entered the housing system Hunt said that he had a mother with cancer who, along with her fouryear- old child, was living outside of her fathers house in a tent.

“They did not get into shelter, \they did not get a voucher,” Hunt said, who at one point in his life was homeless himself.

Hunt explained that in Rhode Island there is a Coordinated Entry System for those who are seeking shelter.

“It’s the only way to get shelter in the state of Rhode Island,” he said.

Hunt said that it’s not a first come first serve list and instead is based on whoever has the highest risk of not surviving outdoors.

About 600 people a night stay outdoors in Rhode Island, Hunt said.

Wood said that after navigating the system for the first time she realized that the system doesn’t go perfectly to plan and that there are situations where it doesn’t workout at all.

She explained that one of the issues she had was the fact that she only had until Oct. 31 to find a place to live because the emergency hotel program was ending.

While looking for four bedroom units to rent she began to realize that despite having a voucher for a four bedroom rental there were only so many out there and in most cases the rents were significantly more than the allotted amount for the vouchers.

After finding an apartment in West Warwick she was able to talk to the landlord who seemed amenable to taking less than what he could normally get for rent.

She said that she was fortunate in the sense that the community came together to help her, and her family.

Wood explained that after an article about her family’s situation was printed in the Boston Globe a stranger reached out to her about creating a Go Fund Me page raising just under $30,000 at the time of publication.

She said that with the funds she will now be able to purchase a minivan which is needed because of her son Corey’s disabilities. Before she didn’t know how she would be able to afford one.

“People have been more than generous and it just shows that there are people out there who generally care,” Wood said. Wood said that she wants her story to be able to bring to light the issues people are facing when it comes to housing.

“It took me having a very disabled little boy to even get help. That’s what it took. I only got the help that I got because of my son being disabled other than that I wouldn’t have gotten any help at all,” she said.