Think You Know Poverty and Homelessness? Think Again

Plenty of folks nationwide are getting the shock of their lives. Despite what they hoped was proper insulation, they find themselves circling the drain of poverty, on the fast track to homelessness. Since shame accompanies this major lifestyle change, not many want to talk about it. For this and other many reasons, people need to see the gut-wrenching new documentary I've been working on for the past several years. In on the edge, seven women share their experiences of homelessness. Watch the trailer below.

I don't use the term "gut-wrenching" lightly. It's the feeling that I still had, even after 25 years working with homeless adults and children, after watching the rough cut of the film last November.

As I was heading out on a six-month HEAR US journey, I stopped at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb to meet my on the edge colleague, Professor Laura Vazquez, who's spent the better part of her last four years applying her considerable know-how to shape this documentary. (She's also a friend with her own story of life on the edge.) My input to this project is honed from years running shelters in Joliet and Aurora, plus my backroads filming sojourn of the past five years. It's an incredible partnership reflecting our shared passion for social justice.

Leaving the NIU campus, I drove westward, pondering the evocative stories told by this film's seven courageous subjects. I've gotten to know them fairly well. What did it take to rip open this painful part of their lives in such a public way? Would they approve of our editing efforts? My travel plans included time with each of them to privately screen our nearly-completed work. Relief! — each expressed heartfelt appreciation and wholehearted approval for our portrayal of their lives in this unique documentary.

Unique? Yes, because this film portrays invisible women in non-urban homeless situations sans stereotypes. No shopping carts. No shabby clothes or street corners. Just painful, honest stories of a series of bad things that happened to ordinary women, most of them with kids. The same things that can happen to any of us.

With the shattered economy and precarious employment taking its toll on life as we knew it, with remaining shreds of the safety net discarded to balance the out-of-whack federal budget, with domestic violence affecting veterans physically and mentally shattered from multiple tours of duty in hell, with families bearing the brunt — the natural byproduct of these hard times, on the edge has a message that needs to be shared far and wide.

Feedback from this film's rough cut viewers reinforced what Laura and I knew would happen. It jars audiences from complacency. Seeing women who could be your neighbor, your sister, your co-worker, your classmate, yourself, then hearing their stories and seeing their faces removed from the artificial insulation of stereotypes — that's disconcerting.

As viewers walk out after watching on the edge, they may step more purposely into their communities, knowing that even small efforts can help alleviate the expanding reality of home loss and crumbling lives. They'll at least understand some underlying causes of homelessness.

HEAR US will continue to empower parents, children and teens to speak about their homelessness, shining a light on a dark corner of this nation's imbalance of resources. We will do whatever we can to improve the lives of millions of women, men, children and teens who desire a place to call home and a chance at the American Dream. Enlightening our key homelessness policymakers about homeless families and teens is an important first step.

My path, certainly an unpredictable one, reminds me of how close I am to the edge. I would be more frightened, but for the inspiration of the women of on the edge, whose example strengthens my resolve to make my daily quest to do everything possible to push the edge further from us all.

Seems to me it's better to learn from those on the edge. They know what they're talking about and are willing to share pointers for those of us veering closer and closer to the precipice.

Photo credit: Diane Nilan