0 The Ugly Reality...Homelessness Never Far Away

One of the most difficult things I can imagine for the people I've known who experienced homelessness, especially families, is when they face returning to it. And this week I found out about a family that did.

Charlie, our HEAR US "poster child," the cute boy whose image was captured by photojournalist Pat Van Doren, a longtime friend and conspirator, and his mother, "Cookie," recently lost their home, for reasons that I'll keep private, but not unlike reasons of other vulnerable people. 20-year-old Charlie had been working, but got laid off and is now just trying to make ends meet by temp work, staying with a friend. His mom is staying with people she knows.

In our latest documentary, "It's All About the Children," each of the 7 women expresses some form of "I'd never want to be homeless again." It reminds me of Scarlett's quote from Gone With the Wind,

As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.  

I certainly don't mean to imply that Cookie or Charlie would ever "lie, steal, cheat or kill," but I could understand the sentiment. 

When I visited them in summer 2008 I was touched by Cookie's pride in showing me her blue glass collection. She beamed as she spoke about her "clowning" as Cookie the Clown, brightening kids and old folks' days with her routine. Charlie was finishing courses for his high school diploma and was working had his sights on getting in at Caterpillar, a great paying job.

Formerly homeless families face repeat bouts for any number of reasons. It's easy to slide down the slippery slope. It's much harder to get back up, and the thought of being homeless hangs like a dark cloud over your shoulder, even for those far removed, as this family was. Stigma, lack of resources, feelings of failure--all contribute to the trauma of the return trip.

Today as I drove across Texas' backroads, I saw lots of roadkill, including a wild boar. It got me to thinking about people in poverty--they are the roadkill on the Capitalism superhighway. 

Seems to me our way of dealing with poverty and homelessness needs drastic changes. It's bad enough to experience homelessness once, but you should be granted a "get out of jail (homelessness) free" card if facing it again, sort of like we gave those rich bankers and Wall Street scoundrels. 

Detail: The Ugly Reality...Homelessness Never Far Away

0 Do Homeless Kids Count?

Somewhere back about 1994-5, Congress was about to do away with the entire McKinney homeless education law. We had just passed the Illinois Education for Homeless Children Act and it didn't take a political scientist to figure if McKinney went down the toilet so would IL EHCA. So we made a bunch of signs including the one on the left that says "the question is not CAN homeless kids count, but DO they count?" next to a picture of Charlie. And we mustered together a protest march and a press conference.

We had Republican legislators, (now retired) State Reps. Suzanne Deuchler and Mary Lou Cowlishaw show up for our conference and they made very supportive comments. Our kids carried signs and were very much a part of the action. Barbara Duffield had just started working for the National Coalition for the Homeless and I had met her once or twice, sizing her up after her predecessor, Joan--name escapes me.

Barbara and I spoke often during this crisis. I learned something from/about her. She wasn't a pie-in-the-sky ivory tower advocate, she was grass-roots and VERY determined. I had to ratchet up my efforts to keep up with her. We involved our shelter volunteers and our homeless brothers and sisters who stayed there if they were so inclined. They were. We sent faxes by the bazillion to our legislators telling them to back off this silly plan.

Mary Lou Cowlishaw made a phone call to her Congressman, Harris Fawell, a personal friend. She said something--I can only imagine it was vintage MLC--"Harris, get them to back off this silly plan..." or something like that.

Denny Hastert sent a staffer to talk with me one night as I was squeezing in a few more faxes before our shelter doors opened at 7. STOP! was their plea--you've convinced us. We quit--the "we" being Congress, brought to their knees by a fierce army of advocates and fax machines.

That was then. This is now.

We need a fierce army of advocates to call and fax their Members of Congress, particularly if they sit on the House Financial Services subcommittee. The committee meets Tuesday, July 15, and they will decide the fate of homeless kids, much like back in the mid-90s.

Back then we didn't have email, blogs, or access to the Internet. Now you can click here
type in your zip code and in a flash get your congressperson's name and contact info (HINT, HINT).

Then you could either call or fax (NO SNAIL MAIL OR EMAIL FOR THIS CAMPAIGN) a brief message to urge them to:
1) NOT SUPPORT THE HEARTH BILL, HR 840, (yup, the same bill we supported until today when it was gutted like a catfish and replaced by a piece of crap). We want them to PULL THE BILL and,
2) If an amendment comes up that allows homeless kids to count (letting HUD count them if they've been ID'ed as homeless by other federal programs), then support that amendment.

HOMELESS KIDS COUNT! What a concept. We fought for this 15 years ago and we're still fighting. We won 15 years ago. Will we win this one? We have a lot to lose, because to some of us, homeless kids count to the max.

Seems to me it's time put aside the fantasy sports and reality TV, dust off the fax machines, and write a message to your member of Congress. Feel what democracy is supposed to be--voters letting their legislators know what's important. HOMELESS KIDS COUNT.

Detail: Do Homeless Kids Count?