The new face of homelessness
A lot of people have suffered reversals of fortune this year -- some have lost jobs and homes. Kai Ryssdal visits the Union Station Homeless Services center to see how people are coping.
Union Station Homeless Services logo (unionstationfoundation.org)
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Links
- Audio: Mark Claussen
Mark talks with Kai Ryssdal about how the economy has left him jobless and homeless, but he's not giving up hope that his next job is just around the corner. - Union Station Homeless Services Web site
Mark Claussen has lost his job and his apartment. He's trying to get back on his feet with the help of Union Station homeless services. (Union Station).
Rabbi Marvin Gross, CEO of Union Station Homeless Services (Courtesy of Union Station Homeless Services).
Pauline was not able to pay her rent after losing her job at Bank of America. Union Station has helped her land on her feet. (Courtesy of Union Station Homeless Services).
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: A lot of people have suffered reversals of fortune this year. They have lost money. Some have lost jobs and then they lost their homes. They've had to move in with friends or family or they've wound up in shelters or on the street. People who never could have imagined that they would wind up homeless.
At the Union Station homeless shelter in Pasadena, it's dinner hour at the Family Center. At 6:30 sharp the moms and dads and kids that live here come together in a cavernous dining hall. Tonight it's burgers, chili and chicken nuggets on the menu. There are 15 families at the shelter. Pauline and her two kids among them. She didn't want us to use their last name.
PAULINE: This is my son. Say, "Hi."
SON: Hello.
PAULINE: And my daughter. She's 4, just finished school, say "Hi."
DAUGHTER: Hi.
They've been here for a couple of weeks. She lost her job at Bank of America back in October.
PAULINE: In the back of my mind I knew it was a possibility. I mean, you can't have all these different managers being let go and not think that you can't be. But I just figured, you know, you work hard, you keep up your scores and your results, you'll be OK. I think that was the mistake that I made.
As a single mom, living paycheck to paycheck, Pauline realized pretty fast she wasn't going to be able to keep on paying rent.
PAULINE: At first I couldn't believe that I was in that position. And I didn't want people to know because kids can be mean. And I didn't want anything getting back to like my son's friends. I didn't want any repercussions for my kids.
She and the kids bounced around a few friends' homes, they slept in the car one night. No family shelters would allow her 15-year-old son to stay with her, and then she found a shelter that would. Union Station Homeless Services has been around for more than 30 years.
Rabbi Marvin Gross, the CEO, says this year has been one of the busiest.
RABBI MARVIN GROSS: All of our facilities have been filled to capacity. Today over half of the clients that we serve are women and children. Families. So family homelessness is the big new face of homelessness over the last 10 years.
The National Coalition for the Homeless says just since last year family homelessness is up almost 10 percent. That's more than a half million people. Union Station offers food and housing and help finding a job. It's got an adult shelter, too, for single people. Here at the Family Center, there's a library and a laundry room. Upstairs there's a family dormitory -- 15 single beds arranged in a space not really much bigger than a good-sized living room. In different circumstances Pauline might have called it cozy.
PAULINE: This is what took me the most adjusting. This is like, for somebody that's used to having plenty of space and being able to run around. It's a lot.
Pauline's up and out early every day. She's getting the kids to school. And then getting herself out for interviews.
Sue Shanley is a job counselor at the shelter.
SUE SHANLEY: The number of new people coming through has stayed pretty constant. The intensity with which they look at me and say, I'll do anything has increased. There's more desperation.
Pauline does figure she and the kids are going to spend the holidays at Union Station.
PAULINE: I've already talked to the children about that. My son said, you know, "It's cool. We'll just have Christmas in January."
RYSSDAL: And the 4 year old says?
PAULINE: Mommy, I want a Dora toy.
She is determined to have that Christmas in January, though, when she promises they are going to be out on their own again.
PAULINE: Nowhere to go but up right now.
In fact, she starts a new job tomorrow. Yes, pays less, and the position isn't quite what she had before. But, she says, you start over one step at a time.
Comments
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From baldwin park, CA, 12/19/2009
As for the previous comment; there is the the stereotype that exists with male children over the age of 12 (usually the cut off), and no, it does not apply to girls. Yes, indeed, it is a stereotype, but one that is slow to change because the "industry" is having to adjust to a new face of homelessness faster than stereotypes can be changed. And no, if it was a single dad, he would be welcomed at that particular shelter as well with his children. In fact, I know of two that are currently in a shelter and one that just moved out of one. It is a slow process of changing the stereotype while maintaining the safety of all persons living there, a process that will not happen overnight.
From Des Moines, IA, 12/17/2009
"No family shelters would allow her 15-year-old son to stay with her." Wow, such stunning gendered discrimination and Marketplace lets it pass without comment, explanation, nor elaboration. Or did I get it wrong and its not gendered, just 15-year-olds are excluded? I'm guessing if a teenage girl had been excluded you would have been full of righteous condemnation. But, excluding a boy from a so-called "family" shelter elicits not even a shrug.
Shame on you and shame on those shelters.
Out of curiosity, if a father shows up with his children, will these "family" shelters assist them or are these institutions just another way that our society drives men - and now boys - out of their families.
I would be remiss if I didn't properly praise the rest of the story and the work of Union Station. Thank you for covering this important part of our economy and the human lives impacted.
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