CATCH is a Boise-based nonprofit housing organization that seeks to end homelessness in the Treasure Valley. (File photo courtesy of CATCH)
Imagine the desperation LaRita Shepherd must have felt three years ago, sleeping in her car or along the Boise River. And she had a 7-year-old daughter who was living somewhere else.
LaRita says that as bad as those days were, they still felt safer than staying with her abuser. She tried to leave several times, but each attempt ended with him finding her again. With a shelter feeling out of reach, her only “safe haven” became her car or the banks of the Boise River. In the chaos of survival, substance use took hold as she tried to cope.
“The summers were extremely hot, and the winters were beyond freezing,” she said…