Roommate wanted: Homeless people are pairing up as a way around the housing crisis
NORFOLK, Va. — Even after three years of homelessness, Eric Perkins did not want to move into an apartment with another person who had been unhoused.
"I was real skeptical because of the things I was seeing inside the shelter," he says. "A lot of drug use, lot of alcohol abuse, PTSD, there was a lot of veterans there. ... I was like, 'I don't want to be in a house with somebody like that.' "
But the arrangement suggested by a local housing provider has turned out better than he expected.
On a recent afternoon, Perkins gave a tour of the two-story house where he has lived for more than two years. It's divided into two apartments, and he shares the one on the first floor. The place came furnished, including with some homey knickknacks. Perkins has his own bedroom but shares a bathroom.
"It's small, but it's enough for us," he says.
Farther down the hall is what sold him on the place — a roomy kitchen with a window onto the small yard. "I like to cook," he says. "This is
