Growing Poverty, Homelessness Like No Tomorrow

Last week in Boston, HEAR US joined with the MA Campaign to End Child Homelessness to plead on behalf of homeless families about looming budget decisions that...

...can have a devastating and life-long impact on a child; further erosion of the safety net as a result of more budget cuts would cause even more harm to homeless children and their families in Massachusetts.

Devastating, life-long impact, more harm...those claims are beyond true. The MA recommendations are way more urgent than this document can convey.

Causing more homelessness is unconscionable, a standard far exceeded in the latest compensation level posturing. One of my favorite ranting heroes, NYT's Bob Herbert, nails it in his column:

We’ve spent the last few decades shoveling money at the rich like there was no tomorrow. We abandoned the poor... while giving the banks and megacorporations and the rest of the swells at the top of the economic pyramid just about everything they’ve wanted.

Even Herbert's column doesn't touch the level of desperation that families are feeling. With hopes that real people telling real stories will convey the dire peril facing even more families at the bottom of the economic pyramid, HEAR US has begun posting short video clips from articulate, courageous spokespersons calling for a halt to pillaging the poor.

This project, called “Learning Curve Express,” gives voice and visibility to families and teens pushed into poverty's pit, homelessness.

Laura and her family, (view her clip) from a small town south of Indianapolis, got caught in the vortex of poverty, swirling around with health issues, job loss, housing costs, implausible housing repairs, and a frayed personal and governmental safety net. They have been mercilessly tossed into a nomadic lifestyle, sleeping in their car, moving in with others (also deplorable, pre-homelessness conditions), and staying in "no-tell motels" to keep from sleeping under bridges. Her heart-wrenching assessment, and her closing observation tells it like I never could.

Other stories in the hopper (to be posted on the HEAR US LCE website), include interviews of single mothers, two-parent families, military veteran--the whole gamut, from IN, IL, MA and RI.  I'll keep traveling and filming to gather more powerful accounts of the true effects of homelessness on families and teens.

Many elected officials and their staff do not understand homelessness or poverty. I'm following up to invite the legislators for persons in these clips to watch their constituent's Learning Curve Express story. I'll post their responses. And I've put links to their info in case others want to call and ask them to watch too.

Seems to me it’s time at least to get Congress to no (more) harm. To help, rattle the cage of your congresspersons. And fling these stories around cyberspace. Prove to me people out there still care!

P.S. If you missed my post on Our Broken Child Support System, check it out and comment. We're looking for help on this vital issue for families.

P.P.S. Leigh, best to you as you and the love of your life join hands and hearts! Sorry I missed you last week in Bean-Town. *)%*@^ traffic!

photos by the author