She could have been a hustler, but my instincts said no. My heart and 35 years of experience working with the homeless and poor said she was really in need. She looked Eastern European. She had two of the cutest, smiling little boys I had ever seen. They had a sign, the one we see but never really read. They were hungry. No problem, that’s my expertise. We got her $100, so they would have food for a week. Then the truth began billowing out. She had bills in her hand: lights – out; water – off; rent – two months behind.
I immediately assigned her to a Hosea case manager. That’s also our expertise: re-housing the homeless. We needed to see what we could do in our homeless prevention department — get them winter clothes, find a partner that would pay her bills because she couldn’t get food stamps or a job because she had no papers.
Atlanta is No. 2 in child poverty in the nation. One in five families live in poverty.
Unfortunately, most public housing in the city has been closed. People are displaced and where do they all go – no one knows.
Can hungry children learn? Is it possible that instead of closing our shelters that offer resources for the poor and homeless to get better, we should actually fund these facilities so we can create the great citizens that most of these people want to be and will be with just a little help. We have developed the city and tried to erase the poor from it, and run them out beyond I-285 where no services exist and where they are isolated from community. Therefore, most of the homeless in our city are women and children living in extended stay hotels.
I would say no more shelter closings. Our city is getting worse in the statistics of those cities encouraging and enabling poverty, homelessness and hopelessness.
Hosea Feed the Hungry will continue to do all we can to help people get back on their feet.
In my time doing this work, I have seen so many policies and decisions occur that work against what we, and others, are doing. When will we see that we must embrace all segments of our population; not just the business and development interests? When will we begin to make a dent in the large subgroup that does not see Atlanta as the city we want the world to see? They just see another day to find a way to get some food for their children, keep their bills paid and have some kind of life.
Hosea Feed The Hungry is there for them.
