Homelessness Sucks 4 Kids

In my wildest dreams, I can't imagine what it would be like to be a homeless teen. I met "Mandy" yesterday who is homeless with her mom. They seem very close and say they're coping but, I dunno, really, spending any part of your early teen years homeless? Sucks doesn't begin to describe it.

They stay in a rotating-site shelter program that relies on volunteers from local faith communities, sleeping on floors of basements, halls, gyms and other religious facilities once a week at each location. It's far from perfect, but it's been the emergency housing model for dozens of communities for dozens of years (so much for "emergency"). 

Despite their best efforts to remain positive, moving forward from their situation will be more than challenging. Mom works, apparently a valuable employee, in a fast-food place not known for fat pay checks. Therein lies the rub....

Problem #1, mom earns about $1000 a month. DuPage County (IL) is one of the most affluent counties in the country. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates Illinois renters need to earn about $2900 a month to afford a 2-br unit at 30% of the household's monthly budget, an affordable rent.

Even fudging on affordability and squeezing into an efficiency unit (if she can find one), their income is far short of what's needed to get and maintain housing (the most basic part of escaping homelessness).

Problem #2, no car. DuPage happens to be a public transportation desert. Yeah, they have a few bus routes, but the routes are not geared for the 24/7 workday. And it means this family needs to be up and getting ready to leave their cozy single-pad-on-the-floor accommodations about 3:30 to get to work and school on time.

They have deliberately avoided owning a car which they rightly deem a huge budget-buster. One housing-assistance program they'd like to apply to almost requires a car because of the need to get to work, school and appointments.

Problem #3, they're a non-disabled family. That seems like a good thing. But it's not because hardly any post-homelessness subsidized housing is available for this segment of the population.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, is asinine about how they define homelessness--not considering as "homeless" families/youth who've lost housing and are living temporarily with others and/or staying in motels--so Congress has been tight-fisted about resources. Ergo, DuPage County organizations lack subsidized housing options for non-disabled homeless families. It's one reason why so many motels are now the housing of (non)choice for working low-income families. Decent motels in this county are $300+ a week, exceeding this family's total monthly income.

Problem #4, the shelter season winds down May 1-October, cutting the available "interim" beds from an inadequate 140 (3 sites) to a super-inadequate 65 (1 site).

This is going to complicate their lives enormously. I've been at the summer shelter sites. They turn away women, families, and men. When they're full, that's it. And the large, transportation-challenged county makes it nigh unto impossible to get to the very scattered sites. Yikes. One site is so far from mom's work that they're just not going to be able to go that night.

Problem # 5, it's not getting better anytime soon. I'm a great believer in miracles. But this is a stretch. Mom and Mandy are hopeful, willing to work hard and to take something less than ideal.

But at this income, without subsidized housing, they simply can't afford to live in DuPage County. Or most other suburban areas, or just about anywhere.

Sad Sub-Story
One of the sad sub-stories here is that the shelter, a respected organization that really tries to do the best they can with the resources available, does not support the need to pass HR 32, the Homeless Children and Youth Act. 

Maybe they've bought the argument that HUD's resources are inadequate for an expanded homeless census. Well, yeah, because HUD continues downplaying the numbers of people experiencing  homelessness. Congress hears that 630,000 or so people were tallied during the "point-in-time" count. That number is probably closer to 10% of the actual homeless population. But instead of fighting for more resources by aligning the definition of homeless to other federal definitions that better reflect homelessness, HUD sticks their collective head in the sand.

So kids like Mandy, and her mom, and hundreds of thousands of kids and adults get strangled in red tape because HUD doesn't count homelessness as it's happening. They're using old-fashioned definitions based on stereotypes which totally ignore the reality of homeless families and youth. I filmed this interview (4-min) of a family in a motel that gives a pretty good idea that staying in a motel is not a vacation.

Ironically, Republican Congresswoman Judy Biggert (13, IL) represents DuPage County. She introduced HR 32, a simple and sensible 2-page bill, that would make HUD improve their definition of homelessness. Biggert's been in Congress long enough to know how things work. She's championed several significant bills to help homeless kids. Sure, Congress will need to find more money to meet a 10-fold increase in numbers of homeless people. But what's the option? Ignoring it?

Seems to me that families like Mandy and her mom will either move forward or backwards. Forward means Mandy might get to worry about things like homework instead of homelessness. Backwards sucks.

(Too) Great Expectations?

Although I don't have time to spend getting involved in what is always a vortex of chaos and stress of homeless families, sometimes I do it anyhow. I'm in the midst of not one, but two, um, challenging conundrums right now. Plenty of lessons to be learned....

Situation 1, Melissa A and her family of 5 young kids (10 YO - 7 months) crammed precariously in a motel in DuPage County, the 23rd most affluent county in the country.

Homeless since July after job loss and inevitable bailing before eviction,  this stalwart 24-year-old mom is in the process of redefining "wrecking ball lives." I've hung with her on a few occasions, enough to give me deep admiration for how anyone can manage to juggle incessant wants and needs of her tribe while battling what seems to be the evil forces with little-to-no money.

The latest, it appears renting a car for a credit card-challenged friend 2 months ago as a favor has returned to haunt Melissa. Friday, when checking her precarious bank balance, one fed by meager unemployment checks, she heard a horrible message: "overdrawn by $2000." In shock, she checked into it. Apparently, the car rental company I'll call "hurts" decided to snatch her money to repair what they allege is $2500 damage to the car. According to Melissa, she received NO NOTICE of this pending action. And she's quick to point out that if she inadvertently tries to use her credit/debit card when she lacks funds, the transaction is denied.

I don't know all the facts. And, having signed several car rental agreements laden with lawyerly language printed in tiny type, it's not hard to imagine she signed away her life, tenuous as it is right now. And the hurtful car rental company smelled blood.

To be continued...

Situation 2, my friend Tina and her 5, soon to be 6, boys in Las Cruces, NM. Last we left Tina, she and her boys moved from the minuscule 13' camper into a "real" home, a 3-bedroom single-wide trailer. It had to feel like paradise. This move took an act of God. During it all, she and her little guys endured oppressive heat, bone-chilling cold, and ever-growing claustrophobia as they rode out a seemingly endless bureaucratic trail to end their homelessness.

Tina, about to give birth (take your little comments about her pregnancy and stuff them in your judgmental arse), is looking to the future, 2 months and counting, when her rental agreement and stimulus-fund housing payments are kaput. Now what is she going to do? She flung a text message my way in hopes that I could bring about a miracle.

Part of her unworthiness, according to the local public housing agency, is a $5205 past due balance in another state, where she and her ex lived before she fled. She can't rent from the Las Cruces housing authority unless this balance is paid. She has no way of paying that.

OK, I understand responsibility, but why is it at the expense of a mother and her children, and not her ex? And why are we willing to spend considerably more than $5205 on the damages that will occur to this family (think medical bills, just for starters) in a town that has NO EMERGENCY SHELTER for families? Can anyone besides me see the tragic folly in this?

We are society. It's not "them," the bureaucrats or elected officials. We are responsible for what happens to people in our communities. Involving bureaucrats and elected officials is essential. And we, their employers, must do that. We've allowed rules and laws to overcome common sense and realities, and then wonder why we have such a mess.

Neither mother is an evil person. Nor do they have resources adequate to care for their families. We can condemn their multiple pregnancies all we want, but that does nothing to help. Melissa and kids are at the mercy of rapidly depleting donations that HEAR US has been collecting. Tina and crew are riding the declining wave of federal stimulus funds designed to prevent families from being homeless. These are just 2 of what I can assure you are hundreds of thousands....


HEAR US--yours truly--and Laura Vazquez, media professor at Northern Illinois University, have created a perfect enlightenment tool, "on the edge," a 60-minute documentary featuring 7 women's stories of homelessness. Melissa and Tina would have fit right in. The stories resonate with the realities of countless families nationwide. Urge our leaders to watch "on the edge" by taking 30 seconds to sign this petition. If you have an extra 4 minutes, watch the trailer.

Seems to me we need to inspire and enlighten our President and those responsible for devising our nation's homelessness policies and practices. And if 30 seconds is too much to spend, well, I'll take my judgmental thoughts and....

Even in the 'System' Families Get Lost

I knew I'd be angry. But I went anyhow, volunteering at the DuPage PADS shelter (above, volunteers set up in the church gym) last Thursday night, helping my friend Jan with children's activities.

In one of the most affluent counties in the country, on the edge of Chicago, homeless families and adults are given less attention than homeless pets. That is not to disparage gallant efforts of the DuPage PADS program and their volunteers, but to point to gross inadequacies of funding and support for a more comprehensive effort.

This pristine county reflects a lifestyle many areas couldn't dream of: the median price of houses is $300+k, family poverty hovers under 4% of the 928,000 residents, and schools and recreation are regarded as top-notch. But they have homelessness, including a growing number of families.

The DuPage PADS executive director Carol Simler was recently quoted in a newspaper article, "...through the end of June, they saw homeless families increase by 119, or 49 percent, over the previous fiscal year. That included 152 children, a 43 percent increase from the previous year, and 75 of those children were under age 5."

What angered me as I interacted with families at PADS is their inability to get out of this totally inadequate way of living--some families have been there over 2 years! Imagine you and your kids schlepping to a different place to sleep each night, bedding down on the floor with dozens of others, and getting shuffled out by 7 each morning to make your way cross-county to the next shelter site--and doing it as a regular way to live for years! Their reasons for being stuck are complex, but shouldn't be insurmountable. But they need help!

One family uses bikes, not a bad transport in good weather, and they have the rickshaw contraption hooked to the back to transport their 2 growing kids to the shelter of the night. With nasty IL winter approaching I can't even think about what this would be like.

Just what does this say about society where some live in mega-mansions and some live without a place to call home? Many volunteers seem numb to the reality spilling through the doors before them, and church life goes on despite the suffering down in the gym. Thursday they had a photographer shooting portraits of well-groomed and healthy families for the church directory, and the choir echoed harmonious hymns in the sanctuary as they tuned up for Sunday's services.

Before ranting at my naivete, I know some families are hard to serve, and they may defy guidelines set by programs working with homeless families. But, come on, what's keeping us from providing more intensive services and housing for families--not hope-bashing pads on the floor in an overnight emergency shelter?

Oh yeah, money. Here's something people can do: Demand that Congress quits spending $2.7 BILLION a DAY on war. Spend a year using $2.7 billion a day on families in this country who have fallen through every crack possible.

Seems to me that it is cost-effective to create comprehensive solutions to homelessness. But the only time we seem to be cost effective is when we're cutting programs to the poor. No wonder we have such a mess! And these are the families HUD counts, not the uncounted invisible ones in motels and doubled up with others. That's why I'm hitting the road on Sunday for the Learning Curve Express.

photos by Diane Nilan

Learning Disability in Congress

I took this pix of Congressman Foster (guy with the suit) who recently met with constituents who stood in line on a Saturday morning in a freezing cold grocery store's bakery department. Despite the discomfort, it was worth it because he admitted to me that he "blew" the issue of the definition of homelessness.

I'm back. A week's vacation, tech issues and an unplanned week dealing with a family emergency knocked me out of the box for the past month. Hope I was missed! For those who can't get enough of my insights, I'm still doing a weekly piece for Change.org's Poverty in America blog.

A while back I decided to take advantage of a Google feature that lets me be notified once a day of stories and blogs on the topics of my choice. My keywords: homeless children, homeless teens, homeless students.

I rightly figured that those 3 would keep me busy. Since doing that, I've been astounded about the fairly significant news coverage of these issues. No reports of a dearth of homeless kids, quite the opposite, to no surprise. Some stories report gallant efforts, some tragic happenings. Accounts filter in from across the nation, from places I know and those I've never heard of, despite 4 years on our country's backroads.

I've found myself pondering one question: With what seems to be common knowledge of the existence and plight of America's homeless kids, why is the learning curve so steep for Congress?

I just left for my vacation when Congress passed and President Obama signed the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the piece that governs HUD's homelessness efforts. While some improvements have been made, I was glad I was out of town and without phone/internet access.

The key issues some of us were hoping for did not pass, despite a herculean effort. Instead, a much-flawed version is set to become law, fortunately for just 2 years instead of the customary 5 year period.

A good story about a house-less family in a no-tell motel in affluent DuPage County (IL) ran this week on Chicago's Fox TV. Mark Saxenmeyer, the reporter, put together a compelling piece that included a poster-child family (mom, dad and 2 boys) who have spent a year in a motel. Chicago Coalition for the Homeless rep and my friend, Rene Heybach, did a superb job emphasizing the issues.

Seems to me steep learning curves need special vehicles. HEAR US plans to be that vehicle. Soon I will announce the game plan. But in the meantime, I'll be glued to my computer, reading about the problem some in Congress think we don't have--kids living without homes in our great nation.

Change of Pace--A Happy Story

Yikes! Even I think this topic of homeless children and youth can get downright depressing, especially after last week's definition saga. So, because it's a beautiful day and because I want to tell people an upbeat story, read on to be happy!

A few months ago I decided that applying for membership in the Professional Disc Golf Association was a good thing, so I sent off my $40 and viola! I can now put the membership on my resume! I also applied for a small grant, $500, for HEAR US to share this awesome sport of disc golf with kids who are/were homeless.

Fast forward to last Wednesday. A group of excited kids and moms gathered at Castaldo Park in Woodridge, IL to learn the ins-and-outs of disc golf. The weather was spectacular for early August in IL. My good friends Helen and Karen came along to assist--Helen with DG, Karen with kid happiness--and our new DG friends, Cathy, Mike and Johnny D rounded out our team.

Barb T, the Bridge Communities education maven, had spread the word among the Bridge Communities' 70+ families (yes, over 70 families in DuPage County are homeless--way over 70!) and her word worked. We had a bunch of kids--I never did count. And moms got to watch or play, their choice.

The laughter and excitement that poured from these little kids--many under 10, a few wizened teens--was infectious!

To get everyone fueled up and rarin' to go, Nancy's Pizza donated 6 super-size pizzas which amply fed the group.

The next exciting part was giving them their very own disc, and letting them put their name on it. "I get to keep it???!!" was the typical response, followed by a huge thank you.

Next, after divvying up the groups, Helen and I with the wee-ones, we hit the course. We figured our little buggers would only want to play a little bit, but they avidly went at it, following instructions--don't hit someone in the head or other body parts, wait till we tell you to chase down your disc, and try to throw it toward the target.

Some of the least likely suspects became primetime players. Little Sara amazed even herself, with a smile eventually breaking out from her stoic countenance. Another kid, in a scooter, found out that this is a game he can play and enjoy. Moms could sit back and watch their kids romp through a beautiful park.

Mike and Cathy from Midwest Disc Golf, along with our DG mentor, Johnny D, shared their copious skills and their love for kids. Mike and Cathy brought a box of gently-used discs that we distributed.

Seems to me that this couldn't have been a better way to spend a birthday if I tried.

HEAR US! Stay with us!

Imagine, if you can, staying with your 4 kids here in a 12'x12' motel room for more than 5 minutes....

I received one of those dreaded voicemail messages from someone who had seen the impressive coverage on homeless families in the Aurora Beacon News this past Sunday. This mom with 4 children staying in a DuPage County motel needed help.

My years of answering phones at homeless shelters never prepared me for calls like this. I knew I couldn't shy away from the call, ignoring the reality that someone was desperate enough to call me to ask for help. I also know that the person could be a scammer, hoping to get money or other resources, gasp!, to use for drugs or alcohol.

When I called the woman I knew at least some of the story to be true right away. I was familiar with the motel she and her children were staying at--a teensy, seedy place dropped in the middle of nowhere between DuPage and Kane counties. I've been there and seen what passes for "affordable housing" according to HUD.

For whatever reason, this mom had been asked to leave the suburban shelter they stayed at for the past 11 months, according to her. She just got a job with a cleaning service and worried about having enough money for gas while paying for the room. This place is so tiny that it doesn't have a web presence. My best guess is rooms are probably about $40 a night, the cheapest place around, which makes it a great place for unsavory characters to stay, something I didn't mention to the mom.

Her immediate worries/needs: gas for her car so she can go to work, money to cover the motel room. Food would also be essential, and the logistics of getting it, storing it, preparing it, and serving it would challenge the most capable among us.

My first thing I stress when speaking to someone in this desperate situation is to disclaim my ability to work miracles. When she shared her story I looked up the number for DuPage Human Services and gave that to her. I explained that she may not get help and to call me back if she didn't and I'd pick my brain for the next level of possibilities, a much slimmer list.
This family wouldn't be considered homeless by HUD's definition. No, they're just vacationing on the outskirts of West Chicago in a dumpy motel room far from anything, even McD's. Instead of a swimming pool they have a parking lot puddle. Their front yard is a fairly busy highway. Their meals come via good luck and culinary ingenuity under the most primitive conditions. Their entertainment is watching drug addicts, prostitutes, and sex offenders come and go in the parking lot.
Seems to me King Phil, the nation's homelessness czar, should stop by this motel and and explain to this family why they are not so bad off, at least why they wouldn't be counted as homeless. I'd even pay for his room.

RECOMMENDED ACTION if this story appalls you: Call or fax Congress. All the info you need is available here. It will take a moment. This issue of who is/is not homeless will be decided upon this week. Your action will make the world of difference to families like this who are not vacationing but staying in seedy motels because homeless shelters are not available and better housing options are zilch.

Think I'm Making Stuff Up? Think Again!

If you read this post and want to do something, click on the above pix.

Sometimes it's good to be validated, sometimes it's not.

Of all the places where people struggle to accept the reality of homelessness, affluent suburbs are at the top of the list. Such is the case in DuPage County (IL), where affluence is the way of life--for most. Others squeak by, like my friend Jan, my "guest blogger" tonight. Still others--children, teens and adults--are HOMELESS.

Jan volunteers at the DuPage PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) program once a month. She goes for the reality check and to offer her simple but beautiful hospitality to anyone who needs it. Lots of people do the same--the nucleus of a compassion epidemic in the making. Would be nice to hear from more of you... and thanks, Jan!

6 p.m. Jan. 23, 2008
Tonight I am part of a routine that looks a lot alike from GoogleEarth,
city to city, across America. I am one of those volunteers who goes to
a church that doubles as homeless shelter once a week. The routine
commences. We are dragging out the pads, assembling the meal line.
Where's the pillowcases?

Good people coagulate like herds of sheep beneath gathering storm
clouds... it be nasty out there but together us "warm fuzzies" huddle
and shelter each other, the weak, the scared, the aged, the ill, the
hunted, the haunted, the lost and the little lambies without a home.

Tonight a 6 week old baby is at PADS. I was doing childcare and offered
to give mom and dad a break and hold Tommy Jr. for a bit. Mom said,
"Yeah, uh, you mentioned that last time. No thanks. You see, I got
control issues."

I backed off to drift back to play with the volunteers' kids, but I
wanted to cry and laugh, I SO UNDERSTOOD what mom just said. If my
child was born on the street and had her wobbly head banging against me
all day in the 25 F below zero wind chill today, I would never let
another soul hold her when I was in the warmth in a library or church,
eating, resting, cleaning up. Finally, at 7 p.m., free of cops and
DCFS, and strangers in the dark by the dumpster if dad takes off a bit,
why the heck would I volunteer to hand over my reason for fighting for
a better dream?

Hurts to know she is out there with that desperation, wanting to know
what it will be.

Jan Hamilton