Too Old to Get Hired, Not Old Enough for Senior Assistance

by Mark Horvath · 2010-03-29 06:00:00 UTC
Topics:

Sandy sleeps in a sleeping bag on the sidewalk in Berkeley, California because it's against the law to sleep in her car. She's on the verge of mental illness from life on the streets.

The thing keeping her unemployed? Her age. She says that's the main factor keeping her from finding work, and she's living a "completely miserable" life on the streets.

She runs to get away from people who are up all night with drugs and addictions. This, full shelters, and the outlawing of sleeping in a car led her to slip into a church to sleep one night. The next morning, she awoke to a $400 ticket for trespassing. Of course, she can't pay this, and now has an outstanding warrant.

She doesn't qualify for mental health assistance. She's not quite old enough for senior assistance. And no one wants to hire someone her age. Sandy, and others who are homeless at her age, are truly part of a forgotten generation.

Sandy from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

Mark Horvath is an activist for the homeless. He vlogs at invisiblepeople.tv and blogs at hardlynormal.com. He was formerly homeless in Hollywood.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Life After Homelessness: Learning to Leave Violence Behind
NEXT STORY:
Is the NCAA Putting Student Athletes at Risk?

COMMENTS (7)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.