Growing Poverty, Homelessness Like No Tomorrow
Published October 23, 2009 @ 05:06AM PT
Last week in Boston, HEAR US joined with the MA Campaign to End Child Homelessness to plead on behalf of homeless families about looming budget decisions that...
...can have a devastating and life-long impact on a child; further erosion of the safety net as a result of more budget cuts would cause even more harm to homeless children and their families in Massachusetts.
Devastating, life-long impact, more harm...those claims are beyond true. The MA recommendations are way more urgent than this document can convey.
Causing more homelessness is unconscionable, a standard far exceeded in the latest compensation level posturing. One of my favorite ranting heroes, NYT's Bob Herbert, nails it in his column:
We’ve spent the last few decades shoveling money at the rich like there was no tomorrow. We abandoned the poor... while giving the banks and megacorporations and the rest of the swells at the top of the economic pyramid just about everything they’ve wanted.
Even Herbert's column doesn't touch the level of desperation that families are feeling. With hopes that real people telling real stories will convey the dire peril facing even more families at the bottom of the economic pyramid, HEAR US has begun posting short video clips from articulate, courageous spokespersons calling for a halt to pillaging the poor.
This project, called “Learning Curve Express,” gives voice and visibility to families and teens pushed into poverty's pit, homelessness.
La
ura and her family, (view her clip) from a small town south of Indianapolis, got caught in the vortex of poverty, swirling around with health issues, job loss, housing costs, implausible housing repairs, and a frayed personal and governmental safety net. They have been mercilessly tossed into a nomadic lifestyle, sleeping in their car, moving in with others (also deplorable, pre-homelessness conditions), and staying in "no-tell motels" to keep from sleeping under bridges. Her heart-wrenching assessment, and her closing observation tells it like I never could.
Other stories in the hopper (to be posted on the HEAR US LCE website), include interviews of single mothers, two-parent families, military veteran--the whole gamut, from IN, IL, MA and RI. I'll keep traveling and filming to gather more powerful accounts of the true effects of homelessness on families and teens.
Many elected officials and their staff do not understand homelessness or poverty. I'm following up to invite the legislators for persons in these clips to watch their constituent's Learning Curve Express story. I'll post their responses. And I've put links to their info in case others want to call and ask them to watch too.
Seems to me it’s time at least to get Congress to no (more) harm. To help, rattle the cage of your congresspersons. And fling these stories around cyberspace. Prove to me people out there still care!
P.S. If you missed my post on Our Broken Child Support System, check it out and comment. We're looking for help on this vital issue for families.
P.P.S. Leigh, best to you as you and the love of your life join hands and hearts! Sorry I missed you last week in Bean-Town. *)%*@^ traffic!
photos by the author
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Comments (10)
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Author
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Diane Nilan, founder and president of HEAR US Inc., has over 23 years experience working impoverished and homeless families. Since 2005, Nilan’s cross-country journey to non-urban communities has focused on poverty and homelessness, particularly as it affects invisible families and teens. She filmed the award-winning series of documentaries, My Own Four Walls, children and youth sharing how homelessness affects their lives and their education. Her reader-friendly book, “Crossing the Line: Taking Steps to End Homelessness,” gives unique insights into homelessness. Her latest production, “REACH” empowers incarcerated parents to advocate for their homeless children’s educational rights.
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Homelessness is my corner. Homelessness, Hunger, Violence and Imposed Silence is caused by poverty. For human rights to be acknowledged either wages must go up, or prices must come down.
Rents I am told in the Southern Part of Maine average between $1,000 and $1,400 a month. Yet this fine young man the church women is working with gets $530 SSI a month. Some people working part time only get $530. a month. That is not enough to pay even the Humanly unavoidable bills. It keeps you alive, but nothing else.
In Southern Maine, people often clothes up there houses in the winter. Motels get cheap but you are kicked out in spring.
Yet the Left think we all have under 80 IQ, or need their protection. Most Leftist making a living off of poverty deep down do not wish to see 100% of poverty wiped out. In fact it is so deeply hidden from these good people that they do not see any error of this line of thought. After all poverty pays there bills. So they only work for increments of improvement, for thousands of people's at a time.
The Right see's us as lazy, good for nothings. I recall a state senator telling a friend of his his daughter and grand daughter Hit a financial rough patch. They came back to live at home, the parents got her set-up in an apartment, paid for food and transportation. But he finished up saying "At least she did not need to go on Welfare."
Didn't he just describe a form of parental welfare? A form who the poor parents, can not afford for their off spring?
Yet neither side treats the poor as if they are Human adults.
That is all we need to do to ensure everyone has a house and is fed. We must treat others as we want to be treated.
The financial realm is man made. We can either go up on wages where every person can afford all of the basics, or reduce costs for the poor, if not everyone.
Eye Glasses cost starts at $150., has an estimated $2. worth of plastic or $5 of metal and materials in them. So for 70% of the folks medical supplies could be reduced. as Glasses for $40., gives a good profit. They cost so much because we only buy one set every year or two.
It should be illegal to have mark-ups of 700% on a few supplies.
My mother had a stroke she required a wheelchair. One option was to make one. Take the metal going into the cheapest wheel chair. If I were to go out, and buy pieces to make a wheel chair, it would cost around $30.00 or less, plus $15 each for the wheels. I could put one together for that amount. But it cost an average of $300 to buy the simplest wheel chair. And the company gets their metal at wholesale.
Why are not people calling FOUL when an apartment which brought $400 ten years ago goes for starting at $700. to $1,400 With Out Repairs, upkeep or new jet bathtubs?
Why are we the underpaid silent when we do not make enough to pay our rent? Speak out tell Both the right and the left. We are as Human as the 30% paid a livable wage are.
Our children Are every bit as Human as their children,. they should be denied the basics of life.
Posted by jan Lightfootlane on 10/23/2009 @ 10:42AM PT
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You're more than right, Jan!
Greed seems to take over, raising prices far beyond what is reasonable and making essential items inaccessible for those with limited incomes.
Yes, manufacturers and retail distributors need to make a profit so they can pay their employees fair wages, cover overhead, etc., but GEEZ, some stuff is obviously priced to rob the poor and give to the rich.
Time for a change? I think so!
Posted by HEAR US on 10/24/2009 @ 06:30AM PT
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I feel as though it is the lack of attention taken that has the affects of homelessness in such a feared irreversable position for some. There are to many accounts that express that lack of attention taken towards programs that offer acess points and preventive measures to this problem. As we continue to witness a national increase in individual poverty claims due to the lack of attention that had been taken will continue to affect the current assumptions of help options.
Posted by Aaron Shaw on 10/23/2009 @ 11:22AM PT
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Poverty is a fast track to homelessness. Poverty is a prison.
As poverty touches more people, often quite painfully, they see what that means.
I agree, Aaron, that ignoring the issue of homelessness will be irreversible for some. How tragic....
Posted by HEAR US on 10/24/2009 @ 06:20AM PT
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Some of the children in my classroom are currently living in homeless shelters. They are pre-school age and it is definitely heart breaking to see their parents struggling to correct the situation. The little folks often spend long hours in child care while their mothers and fathers work.
I have blogged about this crisis and I will continue to do so. I also do whatever I can to help raise awareness in my hometown. There is the misconception that all homeless families are headed by drug addicts or people who are lazy and careless. Many of the families that I provide services for hit a major hard spot so quick that they couldn't recover fast enough to save their homes. Many of the women often were without economic means from the beginning and found that it wasn't that easy to attain them when they really needed them.
It is a national and international problem that has to be dealt with on a daily basis. I had to educate my co-workers on the needs that the children often have and aspects of life that we had to factor in for their care. That was an eye opener for me. Many of the people that I work with are young and they are often very harsh in their assumptions of why a family is homeless. I have been glad that my interests and work has provided me with an alternative view that they can draw from.
Posted by Deborah White on 10/24/2009 @ 06:32AM PT
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Thanks, Deborah, for pointing out more of the story to your coworkers and to our readers.
We need to get away from our assuaging stereotypes in order to move forward--for the benefit of families. But we all stand to lose or gain.
What's your blog? I invite you to check out the HEAR US website. We're starting a project on homeless toddlers (0-5).
Posted by HEAR US on 10/25/2009 @ 06:07AM PT
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I saw a sign which was wonderful it went something like,
"Why do we worship a homeless carpenter on Sunday. Then forget about him on the other days?"
When people and children are homeless,its because good corporations are less than spiritual in their practices. That is why infants are born homeless. And children under 5 have parents who cannot pay the rent.
Posted by jan Lightfootlane on 10/30/2009 @ 01:33PM PT
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Yeah, Jan, it's hard to figure out how some people can profess to be members of a religious sect and yet they engage in anti-people-in-poverty behavior.
Of course, those who are faithful to the true beliefs of their spiritual leaders and act with compassion do make a positive difference in this world.
We need to see more of that! And, if you go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7lGsNe2JZY you can see my latest 4 minute video on children under 5, particularly infants. Feel free to share it!
Posted by Diane Nilan on 10/30/2009 @ 02:55PM PT
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While I can see it. My computer has no sound capacity to it. I do not know what I did wrong. I must have the only deaf computer I am not good at lip reader.
But I am happy you are on you tube. We have to get the message out some how. I will pass on that site to my NH List serve. People from all states are on it, guess the most might be from NH.
Posted by jan Lightfootlane on 10/30/2009 @ 06:12PM PT
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Sorry, yours is the 2nd "deaf" computer I've encountered today. The other belongs to a friend/board member who is money-challenged.
Funny how that happens to women. Not funny really. But consistent.
Thanks for sharing our videos. We posted a new one on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ut9WJAXI2Q
I bet you'll like it!
Posted by Diane Nilan on 10/30/2009 @ 06:50PM PT
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