Hopeless for the holidays

-- Story and photos by Sean Hiller

Gene Wolf never thought he’d end up where he and his daughters are:

without a home.

Wolfe, 33, and daughters Shannon, 5, and Amber, 9, are living between

motels and shelters as Wolfe struggles to take on the role of single

father while trying to find a job that will not conflict with day-care

scheduling.

The three have been searching for a place to call home for more than

four months. The family was forced to leave their Costa Mesa home after

the girls’ mother left, leaving Wolfe, who was working full time as an

electrician at the time, solely responsible for caring for the girls.

With no one to care for his daughters while he was at work, Wolfe lost

his job.

Wolfe has promised himself one thing: “I don’t want these girls to

have to sleep in the car. At least it hasn’t come to that yet.”

So far, Wolfe has managed to keep some sort of roof over their heads.

The three even have camped in Orange County’s O’Neil Regional Park when

weather permitted.

And they’ve found more solace at the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen. In

addition to providing them them with hot meals, the kitchen has used its

resources to find shelters and motels that would house the family.

With the soup kitchen’s help, the light at the end of the tunnel is

becoming brighter for Wolfe and his daughters. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Church on Balboa Peninsula has worked with the soup kitchen to put them

up in a motel, enabling Wolfe to re-enroll his girls in school and for

him to get a job as an electrician.

These latest developments, Wolfe said, give him the hope that soon he

and his girls will be fully back on track and that they will once again

have a place to call home.