15 is the number of years she was alive when she got her first job.
2 is the number of sons she has.
1 is the number of daughters she has.
20 is the number of years she was married.
3 is the number of years she has been homeless.
We like numbers. Numbers are safe. We can look at numbers and compare them quickly and easily without thinking too hard. Then we can stop all of that troublesome thinking, make a passing judgment, and do something else.
The only problem with this method of thinking is that we never learn the whole story.
Prejudice and discrimination against the homeless have been growing substantially. Snide comments such as, "She spends all of her money on drugs," "She doesn't want to work," "She just wants a handout from the government," and "Why doesn't she just get a job?" are all too common -- and entirely unjustified.
Sally Johnson* has a long and complicated history. A victim of domestic violence, which has been on the rise since 2007, she has spent the last three years living in homeless shelters or domestic violence shelters, including the Dawn Center in Brooksville. After being turned out of her home by her husband, she filed for divorce, in hopes that regaining her portion of the marital assets would assist her in getting back on her feet. This was not to be, however, as her husband's lawyer refused to serve the divorce. Since Sally cannot afford a lawyer, the divorce has not been served.
Over the years, Sally has applied for hundreds of jobs. In previous jobs, she was a hard worker and made it all the way up to management level. But this is irrelevant now, because she was a stay-at-home mother for fifteen years. In an economy in which employers discriminate for as little as six months of unemployment, fifteen years is all but unacceptable. Most recently, she had an interview for a job at Jason's Deli. Before that, she worked 46 hours selling Full Body Balance bracelets and brought home only $56.00 -- an average of $1.22 per hour of work, which included opening, closing, and writing sales reports, in addition to selling the product. This is as close as she has come to "getting a job."
Securing employment is difficult for anyone right now, but the homeless are lacking basic necessities the rest of us take for granted. Food stamps -- the only government assistance that Sally gets -- do not cover basic needs like soap, shampoo, and toilet paper, to say nothing of interview-appropriate clothing. Additionally, employers who are overwhelmed with hundreds of job applications often don't bother with applications lacking an address or home phone number.
Sally rarely gets to spend time with her children. Although she and her husband share joint custody, she refuses to let her boys live in a shelter or on the street, as she does every day. She occasionally makes it to their softball games or band concerts and still desperately wants to be a part of their lives. Staring into an empty coffee cup, she tearfully recounted a Christmas tradition she called "The Gift of Giving," in which she and her children would pick out gifts of around $20 each to donate to Metropolitan Ministries.
Stories like Sally's make people uncomfortable, because she breaks every unfair stereotype. She has never done drugs. She was a stay at home mother who was a victim of domestic violence. She is constantly looking for work -- and she has worked, for as little as $1.22 per hour. Despite her daily struggle for survival, she still puts her children first. And, even with her history of giving to Metropolitan Ministries and volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, she stubbornly insists that she does not want to receive anything. She only wants the chance to earn.
"I don't want a hand out," she said. "I just want a hand up."
*Name has been changed to protect identity.
Comments