Freedom Riding

 

This story is about Springtown Villa, a site of the San Marcos Housing Authority with a small community of mostly elderly and disabled residents. CARTS (Capital Area Rural Transportation System) is the public transportation that many of these residents rely on since many of them cannot drive and live on a limited income. The community was invited to the CARTS Community Involvement Meeting to discuss concerns and share ideas on how to improve the San Marcos transit system.  Gracie Campos, HCV/FSS Service Coordinator, took many residents to voice out their opinion, and this is her shared experience: 

 

As you know, most of our resident use CARTS on a daily basis and here recently CARTS made change that really had an affect on my residents. The change consisted of when a resident scheduled an appointment in the past, they were able to call CARTS when their appointment was over, and someone would come by to pick them up. This was great and work well for my residents, however CARTS decided to make a change to when my residents schedule a ride, they are given a certain amount of time for their appointment and if they are not done by the time limit, then they have to sit and wait for the next available driver. Sometimes the wait can be a long one and due to physical limitations and prescription medication, it has caused problems for my residents... The residents ended up talking to Mr. David L Marsh, General Manager for CARTS. He seem to understand the situation and asked me to send him an email with all of the concerns (which I did the very next morning). He thanked my residents for attending the meeting and for informing him of how the change had affected them.
 

Gracie helped give confidence to  her elderly and disabled residents to voice their opinion and make it truly count. Let's keep fighting the good fight!