Homeless with Children

Sometimes I carry my clients’ home with me in my heart and on my mind. Today is one of those days. The afternoon started with a rush of people through our doors, as Fridays often do. It was standing room only, but one young woman stood hesitantly in front of me at the front desk with one toddler on her hip and one standing holding her hand. When I asked her what we could do for her, she said she wasn’t sure, but she needed a place to stay for her and her children, perhaps a hotel voucher. I explained that our limited resources did not allow for this kind of expenditure and started explaining where else she could try. As she tried to keep them back, tears started forming in her eyes and I could tell she was losing control in a crowded room full of strangers. We quickly took her and her children back to a quiet area to discuss her options and make some calls for her while she took some breaths and got her emotions back under control.

The problem is that the Agape House was full and another women’s shelter was not answering their phone; no agency had the wherewithal to buy her a hotel stay, and her family was not willing to take her in. As we sent her off to Agape to see if they could fit her in anyway, I felt so useless and helpless.

An hour later, a young man with his 3 year old daughter waited patiently in the waiting room for their turn. We were unsettled to learn he also needed a place for himself and his daughter. His situation was even worse, as there is no place in town that takes men and children.

I really dislike this continuing problem, and I regularly speak up about it at community group meetings when the problem of shelters comes up—we need more family shelter space! We need a place for emergency shelter for men, women and children to be together. Why is it that we have a men’s shelter, a women and children’s shelter and a battered women’s shelter, but no family shelter? While we are on the subject, what women’s shelter could turn away a woman and two toddlers? Surely you could find a corner or a couch for them to sleep on.

I usually don’t like to rant about public policy or community resources, but I cannot tell you how awful it is to look a young mother or father in the eye and tell them you have no idea where to send them for a place to get their children off the streets. They continue to live in your heart for quite awhile. What does it say about our society and our community when we have so little regard for families who need a little bit of help to make it through?

This kind of day brings home to me in a very personal way how blessed I am in this life, and makes me wish I had all the money in the world, because I would make sure families had a place to live!