LCOC Gets Outer Cape Resident Back on Their Feet
After getting stranded off Cape without transportation, 50 miles from his summer cabin, it took Phil two days to work his way home only to find that his cabin had been ransacked and his belongings removed. Upset, tired, and hungry, Phil borrowed a bicycle and pedaled to the Lower Cape Outreach Council’s Orleans headquarters. He was met by the agency’s social worker who worked with Phil to plan a course of action.
“Before renting that little cabin, I’d been camping and couch-surfing since I moved out of a bad living situation. It was so hard to lose what little I had left. It was like being back at square one.” Phil has been working on the Outer Cape every summer for more than thirty years and spends his winters working in the South. “My lifestyle is not for everyone, but I love the sea and it keeps me feeling young to live this way. I usually make enough money to keep me going and get me down south for the winter, but this year things just seemed to fall apart, and I really needed help.”
LCOC offers clients a variety of services to address basic needs. For Phil, the LCOC team was able to set him up with access to one of their nine food pantries across the Lower and Outer Cape, gave him clothing, toiletries, and other necessities from Katy’s Korner, and helped him with a plan to get to and from his job every day. “I was so grateful, but the topper was when I found a new place to live, they even helped me with the first month’s rent from their financial assistance program. Without that help, I would have been completely out of luck.”