Families represent 23 percent of the homeless. More than 3.5 million people are homeless every night, and, of these, 1.35 million are children. Out of every 50 children, one will become homeless every year.
When we think of the homeless, we almost always picture a man pushing a grocery cart with all of his belongings or a man sleeping in a doorway. We wonder why he does not just get up and get a job. We never think of the average homeless family—a mother with two school-aged children. It is easier to think of the homeless as men. After all, we cannot really hold children responsible for not having a stable home. How does this happen to families?
Consider Ruthie and her family, Elizabeth aged seven and Catherine aged nine. Ruthie and the girls lived with the girls’ father, Billy, in a rented house in a neighborhood in Columbia. They had lived there for as long as the girls could remember, and their lives were stable. Then one day Billy’s work dried up. He tried for a while to get find another job, but nothing worked out. Ruthie and Billy started arguing, and then he left.
For a while things went along pretty well. Ruthie had a minimum wage job. The family made some adjustments. Ruthie stopped buying the girls new clothes and switched to shopping at a thrift store. They went on food stamps, and the girls got on the free lunch program at school. Then it happened.
One morning the car would not start, and Ruthie could not get to work on time. The bill to fix the car consumed most of the rent money. Two days later, Catherine got sick, and Ruthie had to miss work again. Ruthie thought it was just a stomach bug, but, when it continued, the family ended up in the emergency room in the middle of the night. Catherine had to have her appendix out and had to stay in the hospital for a few days.
Unfortunately, Ruthie had no extended family to turn to for help. Ruthie missed more work, and she was fired. Her employer just could not have an employee that he could not depend on. He needed her there every day. Medical bills and car repairs ate the rent money, and now Ruthie had no job.
And that is how Ruthie, Elizabeth and Catherine became homeless.
Ruthie and her family are imaginary, but their story is typical of the path many families take to homelessness.
Got a question for Ann? Email annfurr1@mindspring.com
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