Success Story: Employment is the Key

Ed and Sarah came into Emergency Housing in April. Ed had been the sole breadwinner for the family, and lost his job due to an illness. With no income, it was not long before the family had lost their home and were desperate for help.

During their time in the program, they took hold of every resource that was available, including budgeting, employment assistance, and options available through partners of Helping Hand House. They enrolled their 5 year old daughter in school for the first time. Ed is taking parenting classes through the Sumner Family Support Center. Both Ed and Sarah now have 2 jobs, and their household income went from $1,600 per month upon program entry to over $2,500 per month at graduation. Ed is working as an employment counselor for people with developmental disabilities, and part-time at Target. Sarah was hired as a customer service representative at Virgin Airlines, and has part-time work through a temp agency.

They saved $750 during their 3 months in the program. These funds, along with a cleaning bonus provided by HHH to assist families upon move-out, allowed them to move into an apartment of their own. They are completely self-sufficient, and are no longer receiving housing assistance of any kind. Not only are they getting back on their feet, they now have the dignity of providing for their own family, important life skills, and a story to tell. 

Recommended Article: “99 Weeks Later, Jobless Have Only Desperation” (NY Times)

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — Facing eviction from her Tennessee apartment after several months of unpaid rent, Alexandra Jarrin packed up whatever she could fit into her two-door coupe recently and drove out of town.

Ms. Jarrin, 49, wound up at a motel here, putting down $260 she had managed to scrape together from friends and from selling her living room set, enough for a weeklong stay. It was essentially all the money she had left after her unemployment benefits expired in March. Now she is facing a previously unimaginable situation for a woman who, not that long ago, had a corporate job near New York City and was enrolled in a graduate business school, whose sticker is still emblazoned on her back windshield.

“Barring a miracle, I’m going to be in my car,” she said.

Ms. Jarrin is part of a hard-luck group of jobless Americans whose members have taken to calling themselves “99ers,” because they have exhausted the maximum 99 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits that they can claim.

For them, the resolution recently of the lengthy Senate impasse over extending jobless benefits was no balm. The measure renewed two federal programs that extended jobless benefits in this recession beyond the traditional 26 weeks to anywhere from 60 to 99 weeks, depending on the state’s unemployment rate. But many jobless have now exceeded those limits. They are adjusting to a new, harsh reality with no income.

In June, with long-term unemployment at record levels, about 1.4 million people were out of work for 99 weeks or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not all of them received unemployment benefits, but for many of those who did, the modest payments were a lifeline that enabled them to maintain at least a veneer of normalcy, keeping a roof over their heads, putting gas in their cars, paying electric and phone bills.

(click here to read more)

Tent city just 1 mile from Microsoft

Fascinating video of a tent city in Redmond, Wash., that filling up with the newly homeless who are forming a makeshift community. Anyone here may as well be one of the families that we serve here in Pierce County – but it is shockingly close to Microsoft (1 mile away). This contrast – and the paradigm shattering realization that homelessness is uncomfortably close to home – caught national attention and was featured in the New York Times in a short documentary piece. Well worth watching – and imagine your neighbors and family in this situation. We need services to help folks in this situation…

Click here to see the video.

How do people become homeless?

A few years ago I was having lunch at a spa and a woman asked to join me. Steamed and soaked into blissful states and wrapped in soft terry robes, we chatted while we ate. She was a physician and I worked for a non-profit. As I shared what my work was like, she asked me a question that shocked me, “How do people become homeless?” When I explained, of course she caught on quickly and I reminded myself how normal it is to be blind to issues that do not confront us directly and how difficult it is to imagine life situations so different from those we experience. Neither she nor anyone close to her had ever been homeless.  

Even in this prolonged recession when job losses and foreclosures dominate the news, the facts of life for low income Americans are probably still not clear to most of us. Nationwide, many people in the workforce regularly spend more than 50% of their income on their housing, making them extremely vulnerable and ‘just a paycheck’ away from homelessness. For example, in Pierce County, Washington where Helping Hand House is located, rental vacancies fell to 4.3 percent in February, nearly 2 percentage points lower than the historical average of 6 percent. In the summer quarter of 2008 the cost of rentals rose 2.3 percent and is expected to rise another 6 or 7 points by this summer. (source: Central Puget Sound Real Estate Research Committee, v.59 n.2, p.46-47) When you pair higher rental costs and fewer units available with current unemployment figures, the chief reason for family homelessness becomes vividly clear.  

Even when the economy is flush, workers at minimum wage still have to work 81 hours a week to afford the standard two-bedroom unit in Pierce County ($845) and 117 hours for a three-bedroom ($1231). The average income for renters is $11.70 an hour, making decent, safe housing still out of reach for so many families.  

There was a time in our country when anyone who worked was pretty much guaranteed a safe, decent place to live. Let’s take a good look at the situation in our communities and do all we can to make that true once again.

 

No golden parachutes

Looking foward to sharing with you about the realities we see…this crisis is less about economic policy and bank defaults than families…families who are losing homes, whose kids need to switch schools in the middle of the year and have to make new friends…lost jobs and anxiety. The families with no golden parachutes. These are the realities we see every day, and the ones we want to share with you – the back end of the news that never makes the headlines. In the midst of this, we are making a real difference in the lives of families on the brink or in neck deep in homelessness – we want to share these stories with you, too. Thanks for reading…