Susan’s Resident Success Story
When Susan and her husband first moved to Junegrass Place in Kalispell, they were exhausted, heartbroken, and financially drained. After years of caring for her husband, whose disability had shaped their lives for decades, his condition suddenly worsened. Piece by piece, the life they had built began to fall apart.
“My husband had been sick for a very long time,” said Susan. “He’d been disabled for about 25 years. In 2022, it started getting really bad, and I left work to take care of him. So, we went from about $120,000 to about $21,000 a year. We lost our entire retirement. For a while we were living on just his VA pension.”
Hospital visits became a routine part of life. In 2023, Susan’s husband was diagnosed with osteomyelitis, a bone infection that had spread to his pacemaker. The couple spent a month in Salt Lake City while he was in the hospital and underwent surgery. Financial strain and uncertainty compounded their stress.
While in Salt Lake City, Susan and her husband lost their housing, and a key piece of their stability slipped away. The landlord wanted them to send their rent payment via money transfer, but Susan didn’t have the extra $200 for the transfer fee, so they were evicted.
When the couple returned to Kalispell, they had nowhere to go.
“I was at the end of my rope, sitting in a U-Haul with my husband,” she said. “Just weeks before, he had surgery to remove cancer from his lung. I was trying to get into one of the shelters, but I have two dogs and two cats.”
A staff member at Kalispell’s Ray of Hope shelter referred Susan to Volunteers of America, who immediately stepped in.
“Volunteers of America was absolutely amazing,” said Susan. “They got us into a motel that night and covered 60 days while they worked to get us into Junegrass Place.”
In 2024, Susan and her husband were the very first residents to move into Homeword’s newly opened Junegrass Place, a 138-home rental community built to serve Kalispell’s working families, seniors and veterans. For Susan, a safe, healthy home with rent they could afford was the first solid piece she could set back into place.
“Things got better at Junegrass,” she said. “My husband and I enjoyed being here,” she said. “He was still having a lot of medical issues, but Junegrass is less than a mile from the hospital. That made it easier.”
After years of unsafe and unstable housing, including living in a rental apartment with a leaking roof and mold, Junegrass Place’s safe, modern homes were a relief for the couple. The on-site manager’s office and maintenance team were a stark improvement from where they had lived before, and features like in-home washers and dryers were much more convenient.
“In addition to saving me about $200 a month [on rent], it is easier to do my own laundry here,” said Susan.
Not long after they moved in, Susan’s husband passed away. They had been married for nearly 38 years.
“It took a while to figure out how to do life without him,” she said. “I didn’t realize how isolated I’d become being my husband’s sole caregiver.”
Grief takes time, and healing happens slowly. Susan’s community quietly stepped in to help where they could. Volunteers of America extended rent assistance for another year, giving her time to stabilize. Meanwhile, Karen, the property manager at Junegrass Place, offered Susan part-time work in the leasing office.
Susan now works 10 hours a week on site, helping other community members, often people facing struggles she knows all too well.
“It’s very welcoming,” said Susan. “They care here. I talk to people every day when I’m working who call—single moms struggling to find a place—so there are a lot of people out there struggling who need this kind of housing. And the need is not going away.”
With a home that she can afford and a place to heal, Susan has been able to rebuild her life around the things she loves. Her part-time work in the leasing office keeps her connected to the community, while her church, outdoor activities and homesteading hobbies provide balance and purpose. She cooks, bakes, cans, grinds her own flour, quilts, crochets and even makes her own soaps and lotions. She often rides her bike to nearby Heron Park, takes her dogs for morning walks or heads to the lake to fish.
Most importantly, living at Junegrass Place allows her to stay close to her family. Her daughters live in Bozeman, while her son, daughter-in-law and their two children live right outside of Kalispell in the town of Kila.
“My grandgirls are very important to me,” she said.
Susan is able to be there for her granddaughters’ games, art shows and “baking days at Grandma’s.”
“Things are a little tighter, but I can do the things I need to do—stay housed and still enjoy life,” said Susan.
More than a rental community, Junegrass Place helps ease the challenges Susan faces as she rebuilds her life after loss and hardship. It’s proof of what affordable, well-designed homes can make possible for Montana’s seniors, veterans, workers and families.