What Is Her Next Move Going To Be?

A full week has gone past. Which means there is one less week my mom has at the shelter in Maryland until she has to pack up her belongings and leave. By my mom getting ready to leave, it is going to lead to the same problems that we had to worry about before like where she is going to stay or go after she leaves and money.

My dad has already decided that he’s not spending any money on a hotel. For her to be in a hotel for a whole week is about 300 dollars which is going to affect the household we’re living in whether it is the bills, rent or groceries and I completely understand where my father is coming from. All he wants for us and himself is to be stable and not have to worry about struggling again.

 My dad and my mom have been getting along very well lately, surprising to me, but it’s a good thing. So, since they have been getting along so well my dad decided that my mom should come and stay at the house with us because there is more than enough room for her here. By mom being at the house and staying with us we won’t have to worry about where she’s going to stay at plus there is less financial problems for my dad to worry  about.

Me knowing my mom, I knew she was going to say, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” I think the only reason my mom said that is because maybe she doesn’t want to have to rely on my dad again and might just want to get through this situation alone or maybe just doesn’t want to be around her ex-husband 24/7. I just hope that my mom decides to move in with us and makes a decision soon.

I Remember That Day...

It really bothers me that till this day my mother is still homeless. My mother lives in a homeless shelter in Maryland. This was the only shelter that she could find a spot in that the Veterans office in D.C. could get her in just for temporarily. My mother has been living in this shelter for about four months and to me it seems like it has been forever. Now, her time being at the home shelter is coming to an end in about two more weeks.

 I remembered the date like it was yesterday November 27, 2011. That was the day that my brother and I dropped my mother off at the homeless shelter for the first time ever and it broke my heart completely. I never thought I’d have to witness my mother living in a shelter. The only good thing about my mother living in a shelter is that she had roof over her head and is not living in the streets, which is a complete blessing.

The sad part about it was that it had been the first that my mother and I had ever been apart from each other and I knew it was going to kill my mom just as much as it was killing me. I felt like a part of me was being taken away that’s how close my mother and I are. It was tough for me not being around my mom every day and not being able to see her like I was use to seeing her. I rarely ever get to see my mother now. I only see her about twice every two weeks or if that.

When I do get to see my mother we try to spend as much time as week can with each other. But I do know greater days will come and my mother will eventually get back on her feet and start taking care of business because I know that she hates being away from us all the time when she used to be around us every single minute of the day. She tells me this all the time.

The Sadness of Giving back to the Community

This past Saturday my mother and I went to go volunteer at a homeless shelter in D.C. to serve food to the homeless. As the homeless people began to come into the building I never thought I would see so many homeless people in my life fill up a whole cafeteria. I mean I have volunteered at a homeless shelter before but this place was extremely crowded of homeless people more than I have ever seen.

As I was there I happy because I was doing something constructive and giving back to the 

community, but when I saw all those homeless people hurrying in just to get a plate of food made me really sad. I looked at all these people and thought to myself, “That use to my family and I” and I know exactly what half these people are going through and dealing with this struggle.

What broke my heart the most while I was there is when we ran out of food to give to the homeless people. As more came in the door we had to say “We have no more food to serve.” It hurt me because every single person who walked in there just walked into the shelter just wanted a nice hot meal just like everyone else in there to get through the day. The food we served was probably the only meal that some of them actually at just to get the day. Just to imagine the homeless people who didn’t get a plate broke my heart.

What really caught my attention the most was that there were people of all ages, from little children to the elderly. I knew just by looking at the little children that they had no idea what was probably going on in their lives but I knew that they were going to be effected in the future because they had no stability in their lives at all. By looking at them and reminded me when my family and I had to eat at a homeless shelter before.

Sometimes in life you go through a struggle. 

The Sources

One of the potential sources for my final analysis paper I will be using is a website called National Alliance to END HOMELESSNESS. On this website I will be looking at a specific article that provides a variety of different information which is called, “The State of Homelessness In America 2012.”

On this website it provided me lots of data about whether the amount of homeless decreased on increased yearly. This also told me that most people whom are homeless are mainly Veterans from wars. Most of the people who were homeless that were veterans were unable to find a job because of the economy and there were not many jobs hiring. The reason I choose this source was because I relates in my mother. She is also a veteran and for her it was hard to find a job.

Another potential source that I will be using for my analysis paper is a website called Huff Post Education. On this website I will be looking at article called “Homeless Advocates Divided Over Bill Aimed at Helping Kid.” On this article it talks about a bill called McKinney- Vento Act of 1987 which makeds sure those children who are homeless have the same quality schooling as everyone else.

I choose this article because it related to me in a way. When I was homless I was held back in the 7^th grade. Being homeless put so much stress on me I stopped attending class and began to skip school. Eventually I began thinking to myself that I didn’t want to grow up and have no career at all in the future and what to be better than my own parents. Therefore I began to take the initiative  and go back to school doing everything possible because I wanted to make my family proud of me and not disappoint them,

References

“National Alliance to End Homelessness/” The State of Homelessness in America 2012, Jan 17, 2012. Sun. 12 Feb. 2012.

“Huff Post  Education.” Homeless Advocates Divided Over Bill Aimed at Helping Kid. Feb 11, 2012. Mon. 13, Feb. 2012.

HOMELESS HAS A NAME...

After living in a hotel for about seven months to eight months after being evicted from our first house, my father finally was able to find a house that was for rent and was affordable for my mother, my two brothers and I. My father was the family financial provider. Although my father and my mother were divorced my mother was unemployed and therefore my father paid the rent. Often times I wondered why mother did not have a job and did not help contribute to the family and help my father. Some days I would ask myself, “Why doesn’t my mother have a job like normal parents do? She not sick, so what is stopping her from working?”

After living in the house for about a year we were then evicted again for unpaid rent. This was the second time this has happened. I began to feel very embarrassed of the situation because it always felt like were always making a transition and moving. It was ridiculous because it seemed like I was going to a new school and having to meet new people all the time. I just wanted to be in a stable environment and not having to worry about where my family and I are going to have to move to next.

Eventually, after being evicted the second time, my brothers and I moved with my father and my mother found a spot in a shelter. When I moved with my father it was probably the most uncomfortable transition I ever had to make. The reason why it was so uncomfortable was because it was not home and I knew that living with my father was just temporary. By me knowing that it was just temporary until my mother got on her feet and found a job, it made me feel as though I was still homeless. The reason why I felt like this was probably because my father was really never around and was not in our lives like parent should be. 

Stability to Instability

The only place that ever felt like home was school. Every morning I would wake up in a hotel room eager to hurry up and catch the bus to go to school. The reason that I was so eager to go to school is because it was that one place where I could go and get my mind off things that were going on with my family. School was basically a safe zone for me, but only for 8 hours. Then it was back to the same problems again and back to the hotel.
School was also the one place where I could see my friends regularly after we were evicted. On the other hand the situation I was going through was an embarrassment. I didn’t know whether I should tell my friends or not. I felt like if I was to tell them they would judge me and my family. But then when I thought about it, and said to myself that’s life and things happen. If they were my real friends they would stay by my side no matter what. Eventually I did tell my friends and by my surprise some understood what I was going through and went through the same situation once just like me.


Being homeless made me realize that things happen for a reason. By my family sticking through these problems together it only brought us closer as a family and it defiantly made us stronger than ever. If this would have never happened who knows we my family would have ended up at. By everyone being able to help my family and I when we were homeless by giving us food and clothing when we needed it, as I got older I began to give back to the community in way. Around winter time I would volunteer at a homeless shelter and serve them food and hand out clothing. Being homeless changed the person that I am today.

It Happened...

The first time I was homeless changed my life forever. When I was about 9 years old a sheriff came to my house at 8 in the morning as I was heading out to school. The sheriff handed my mother a yellow paper and I had no idea what it was. A few weeks later I began seeing my mother bringing in empty boxes every day and packing up our belongings. I did approach my mom and ask why she was packing up our belongings and her exact words were, “We’re getting evicted”. Me being young I had no idea what that word even meant but my mother explained it to me.  Knowing that my mother did not have a job, I wondered where my two brothers and I would live and what we would do about school. Yes, my father was an option, but he didn’t have the time on his plate to look after us like my mother did because he had a job unlike my mom. As the days came dwindling down I noticed that my mother was drinking more than she ever did on a normal day. I thought maybe it could be because she was stressed and didn’t have a plan for us or maybe she was just trying to forget that any of this situation was even happening at all and was trying to drink her problems away. Either way it wasn’t the right way to go about the situation because when she did drink, my mother would have these crazy mood swings and would take all here anger out on us by yelling and screaming. But I kind of figured it was just the alcohol talking and she didn’t mean any of it. I felt bad for my mom because I could do nothing at all to help my mom to get through this situation nor could I help her financially. I felt as though I was letting my mother down unable to provide help. Any child would feel this way seeing their mother go through what she did with 3 children and struggling.