Diakonia Inc

I had nothing but respect for Diakonia many years ago when I was left Homeless after being an inpatient stay at a Nursing Rehabilitation Facility for 3 months after my back surgery in 2016. This has all changed, when Diakonia has left my family barely hanging on, since August, 2020. I'am disabled, and still fighting for my SSDI after I was severely injured in an accident at work, in June 2019. I was hospitalized and put in a Rehabilitation Facility to recover for 7 months. I had did an intake with Diakonia before my discharge date January 29, 2020, because we had lost our apartment due to the extended stay at the facility, but this wasn't able to happen, there wasn't a bed open for months.. We somehow managed due to my fiance working, but that all changed due to Covid and her place of employment closed. We were still able to get by until the end of August 2020. We both called Diakonia and did intakes, and let them know our lease wouldn't be renewed, due to owing back rent for September and we would have to vacate on Oct.6, 2020. I informed Diakonia that I had a family of 5, and needed rental/housing assistance. I informed Diakonia that I couldn't stay in their shelter due to my disabilities, and a weak immune system which my Doctors firmly expressed. I also informed Diakonia that we had 3 children that we wanted to live with us, but their wasn't a family unit open. We continued to call almost every other day, as Diakonia's policy states; to keep in contact to show that we still need the assistance. Well, we hardly received any return communications from this shelter and we were evicted on Oct.6, and had to live in our Suv for over a month till we were able to get some assistance from another program, but it was very minimal. We were barely getting by, and we continued to call Diakonia at least 4 times a week every month. We started to lose all hope because we weren't getting any communication whatsoever. The worst part is we had to do 8 intakes in a 9 month period, at least once a month. We were being told by employees that their was no file on us, and they couldn't find our intake.(8 times and 8 intakes in 9 months). One of our phone calls was lucky, when the Director, Mrs Bea had answered in March of 2021. We had told her the situation at hand, all the intakes we did, no communication from their office, and that we were homeless living in our Suv. We thought we were going to get somewhere this time when the Director put us on hold, but instead Mrs Bea transferred the call to another employee, whom asked us information to complete another intake, "Unbelievable". We kept calling for 2 additional months after this, until the beginning of May 2021. We were so disappointed, angry, depressed and homeless, because we couldn't believe how we were being treated, like a piece of crap. I have filed a discrimination case with Hud and the Maryland Civil Rights Organization in May of 2021. I was given an agreement to sign from Diakonia stating that they have done nothing wrong, and that they don't acknowledge any of the phone calls and intakes that we made, but that they might be able to help us with a housing counselor. We do have proof that we have called Diakonia many times a week for months to check our status of our many intakes.
I never signed that agreement and I won't sign an agreement and agree to all the lies that Diakonia has stated. We have tried to get assistance from many places, and each place had said; since we reside in Worcester Co., we have to go through Diakonia and especially since Diakonia received Federal Covid Funds a few times to help families like mine, that are facing Homelessness due to Covid reasons. This case has not been resolved yet, I'm guessing because they want me to break, and sign a false agreement. My fiance and I, along with the Maryland Civil Rights Org. have been waiting for a response from Diakonia. I hope this shows people how Diakonia only cares about money, but could careless about people and families in need of emergency assistance. Diakonia has broken their own policies and have went against their own mission statement, as we presently continue to suffer from Homelessness, while living in our Suv. This is very disturbing on how we are being treated. I have been debating to write this review for many months now, because we were hoping that Diakonia would of finally came through for us by now. But this hasn't been the case, so I wrote this because people need to know how Diakonia treats a variety of people, like me, since Iam disabled and have health concerns. For those and Covid reasons, I wasn't able to live in their shelter, so my whole family was penalized and has been suffering since. If any changes with our situation and Diakonia, I will update this review. Diakonia knows who I am, I don't need to advertise myself, but maybe this review will make Diakonia move quicker in making the right decision, finally putting my case as a priority and assisting my family out of Homelessness, before I take this case a step further.
Thank You for reading my family's experience with Diakonia. People really need to know the truth!!!!