VIV Moments

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VIV Moment

Yesterday, a woman came to my door looking for work. My husband sent her away, but I felt called to talk to her. I found her down the street and invited her back to my house. I gave her some iced tea and a snack and asked her to tell me her story.

She has a health problem (hernias from working as a nursing assistant). While she was in recovery from surgery, she was unable to work and lost her apartment. She found a motel that would let her family (two children) stay there if she cleaned motel rooms. The motel also charged $50 a day for the room. She got behind with the payments because she had to buy food and clothes for her children.

The motel had the police show her the door without being able to pack her things. Among the items left in the motel room was a purse with her children’s birth certificates and her food stamp card. She did not discover the food stamp card was missing for a day. When she called to cancel and replace the card, she found that someone had zeroed out her account, so no food for this month.

She went to the church she had been attending and talked with the pastor, seeking solutions to what had become an untenable situation. He helped her some, but then he reported her to Child Protective Services (CPS). CPS took her children away from her. They gave the children to her ex-husband, who has never supported them in any way.

She is living down the street for a few days and will be out on the street by the weekend. This woman is not a drug addict or an alcoholic. She wants to work, needs a job, but without an address and phone number, not to mention a car, she is not having any luck.

I am helping this woman. As a Christian, I can do no less. I am ashamed that there is nowhere for women and children to go to get off the street. I am mad that the only social services available for the homeless take their children away.

I called around to see if there were any services in my town for women in distress. None. She had stayed in the one shelter, so she cannot stay there again for one year. The woman’s shelter will not take her because she is not abused. Community Action answers their homelessness prevention line with a recording.

There are women and children on the street in our towns and cities. In fact, almost 80 percent of homeless people are women with children. Why can we not feed our hungry and help our homeless? I am astonished, I am scared and I am mad as hell!

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