Home for the Holidays
Please donate to help a mother and her two young daughters get into a home for the holidays, and reunited with their precious dog Blue Ivy.
Here is the story:
Over the past year I have been hosting dinners at my house about twice a week for families and individuals experiencing homelessness. Many of these people have pets. Approximately 25% of people who become homeless, are turned out on the streets with their pets. Every single winter we lose neighbors to homelessness. In this city, where we have so much wealth, innovation, brilliance, and brotherly love, we are still losing people every year to hypothermia- caused by homelessness. Of those who die from hypothermia, many are homeless with their pets. There are no shelters in Philadelphia that house people and their pets. Philly’s pet shelters are also in the midst of a crisis. There isn’t enough space or resources for all the homeless pets. Given this calculation, people prefer to live on the streets with their pets, rather than be separated from their best friend, and often only companion. I have been working to open Philadelphia’s first pet friendly affordable housing community, and because of my work to house and advocate for people and their homeless pets, people often reach out to me when they learn of someone in a vulnerable situation me, hoping I could direct these people to services. I would invite them over for dinner. I feel that assessing a person’s needs is easier, not to mention more compassionate, over a bowl of soup, then over a desk of paperwork. Also, I don’t have an office. So my dinner table serves as one. People come over, I learn about the specifics of their situation, stress and vulnerability are kept at bay, and warmth is served with a side dish of rice. These dinners have brought me face to face with the growing problem of homelessness, especially family homelessness, which is affecting more and more of our country today.
In the midst of the nation’s longest economic expansion, the separation between rich and poor is at a five-decade high. Income inequality in America is the highest level since the Census Bureau started tracking it.
This disparity is evident in our cities- where 85% of our country resides. We have 6 vacant homes for every one person who is homeless.
Hunger Free America analyzed population data from 2015-2017 and just released its report that has grim statistics for one of our world’s most popular cities. In Philadelphia, the number of people who can't afford enough food increased by 22 percent in the last six years. Some 300,000 people in the city, roughly 1 in 5 residents, live in households that the federal government determined to be "food insecure."
In the United States today many Americans are living on the edge, forced to choose between basic necessities like purchasing food, paying rent, or going to the doctor. 1 in 5 children in the U.S. live in poverty. There is a decades-long wait list for housing vouchers. In Philadelphia alone, about 16,000 people access shelter each year. People turned away for various reasons, but most often because the shelters are at full capacity- the city only has 12,000 shelter beds in total.
While the numbers are staggering, each person or family is unique, and their struggles are intense. In fact, I am always in awe over the resilience, and strength, and bravery with which these people manage their struggles.
My most recent dinner guests are in many ways like so many others that I see each week at my dinner table: suffering, scared, violated, but hopeful. This family had been connected to me by a volunteer at Citizens for a No Kill Philly, an organizations which works to save animals from euthenazia. The volunteer met the family when they arrived at ACCT, Philadelphia’s pet shelter, to surrender their puppy. It was clear to the staff and volunteers who witnessed this surrender, that the family was in agony over this separation. The mother explained that she had recently become homeless with her two daughters and her dog, and needed to give up the dog Blue Ivy, because there were no shelters that would allow people with their pets. Citizens for a No Kill was able to get their dog temporarily fostered, with the hope that the family would eventually get back on their feet, and would be reunited with their sweet dog. The same volunteer who helped coordinate the foster reached out to me to see if I could help the family get into housing. .
I reached out to the family and invited them over my house for dinner.
The mother and daughters were so kind and warm, I instantly fell in love with them. The 10 year old and 12 year old girls were soon playing with my 11 year old daughter.
And I got to sit and speak to their mother in private.
Here’s what I learned:
She and her daughters were in the shelter system before. The first time they were homeless the mother and her two young daughters- (the girls are now ages 10 and 12) waited a long 18 months in the shelter system until she became eligible for a rapid rehousing voucher from the city to help pay for rent.
The city referred her to the non-profit TURN, a tenant advocacy non-profit, which worked with the city to help families identify housing. This homeless identification assistance is part of the Rapid Rehousing program. TURN sent the family into housing managed by the Lublin Corporation.
When the family currently living with me exited homelessness and entered the Lublin Corporation housing, they found it in desperate need of repair. There were no radiators or heating units in the two bedrooms, there were holes in the exterior, through which rain water leaked inside. There was mold, and missing baseboards, and floors that were coming undone. The family attempted to have the landlord address these issues, but had to go through L&I to make any progress.
The family also received water shut off notices for failure to pay the bill. The family would then pay the $200 bill out of fear that the water would be shut off. The mother did not realize that the landlord is responsible for the water bill, as stated in the lease.
Despite the mother being told the rapid rehousing voucher would last for 24 months, it expired after 12 months. She was told this was due to shortage of funds in the program. Once the voucher ran out, Lublin charged her another security deposit, and increased the rent. The mother was working two jobs, one as a 1-1 aid in a school for children with autism, and another job as a hospice worker. Both jobs are contract jobs similar to Uber. Neither job was enough to pay the full amount of rent, plus an extra security deposit, and all her other utility bills.
She held onto the housing out of desperation. But she was eventually evicted. She had no legal representation in the eviction courts. Lublin had hired Howard Ford, who runs Evictions Unlimited, a firm that makes evictions automated, cheap, and fast for Lublin. So automated, cheap, and fast, that I found Lublin was the plaintiff in 215 eviction cases. These are 215 evictions for which he never had to appear a day in court. Howard Ford did the bidding for him. Those 215 eviction cases represent well over 215 individuals. This family, for example, was evicted by Lublin ONCE, but there were 3 family members affected- a mother and her two young daughters. The 215 eviction cases could represent hundreds of people- many of them young children- who are turned out on the streets. Once someone has an eviction on their record, it becomes almost impossible for them to gain housing again.
AND once a household has used the voucher, they must wait until they are even eligible for another voucher.
This is leading to higher rates of homelessness, especially for families in Philadelphia. Landlords who hold a concentration of the low-income housing don't often have to encounter their tenants- tenants like these two little girls living with me right now. The one has asthma. The other depression. Both have been traumatized. But both remain cheerful, warm, and grateful. They always put away their dishes, they clean up after themselves, they constantly say thank you, give me hugs, and ask me how I'm feeling. These are beautiful little girls who desperately need stability and housing.
She has nobody. Not even family. She is still mourning the loss of her father.
She is mourning the loss of her home. When she was quickly evicted, she was unable to take any of her Valuables with her. Not even her father’s ashes: which she had spent her last penny on.
She is overwhelmed.
I told them they will stay with us, and we will care for them until we can get them housed.
I held the mother. I promised her that she is loved, and supported.
But inside I am filled with so much rage and sadness at this system.
This woman works. Two jobs. Neither job pays a living wage.
How do we live in a country like this?
Well, it didn't just happen overnight. And we don’t need to accept it as an inevitability. We can do something to change it. But first we need to understand how we got here.
Your donation to this page will help this mother and her two children with housing rent. If we can raise enough funds for at least one year of rent, plus move-in costs, we are more likely to have luck finding a landlord who will overlook the eviction on her records. The landlord does not have to worry about a risk of taking on a client who has rent up front.
Your donation will not undue this system of family homelessness that is devestating more parents and children in the US today. BUT it will help create a stable housing situation for this family in desperate need.
Please donate, and lets get them into safe housing for the holidays.
Thank you for your generosity, and please remember to share the page.
Warmly,
Stephanie
