Good Samaritan helps homeless woman impacted by government shutdown

Nadine Kalinauskas
A Good Samaritan helped homeless cashier Dior Hall land an apartment

A San Francisco woman finally has a place to call home, thanks to a kind stranger who was moved by her story.

Last week, PBS NewsHour reported on how the government shutdown prevented 17 homeless residents from moving into federally subsided apartments in a new affordable-housing building in San Francisco.

Dior Hall, 36, a part-time Walgreens cashier, was one of the residents affected. After living in a shelter for 17 months, she had been looking forward to finally moving into her first apartment.

But when the shutdown made it impossible for housing officials to get a signed lease agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which was set to subsidize her rent, she couldn't afford to move in.

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"I was really disappointed because I was close to — so ready to get out of here. It's really — you have no idea how it feels to have — kind of have the rug pulled up from under you like that so quickly and to be so happy at one point and then all of a sudden you just — it's a down," Hall said.

A kindhearted stranger saw the NewsHour piece and offered to anonymously pay Hall's first month's rent.

The good Samaritan shared the reason for the donation in a statement to PBS:

"Individuals who do kind things, unselfish things, just want our members of Congress to do kind things, unselfish things, too, because it makes our democracy stronger and better for everyone when Congress does it for the whole country, for all of our fellow Americans. That is why we have a government. And contrary to what some may think, yes, people ARE entitled to food and housing and some little bit of happiness in the richest strongest country on Earth."

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Hall moved into her new apartment over the weekend.

"It was total happiness, exhaustion and excitement," she said. "One of the first things that hit me when I walked through the door was a sense of responsibility. I need to pay my own bills, pay my rent. And I need to keep it going so I don't have to go through (being homeless) again. In the shelter, I had to be up at 6 a.m. every morning and out by 7 a.m. To be able to sleep in ... my own bed and not on a mat. I'm just very, very happy."