A Raccoon Ate My Cheetos, She Said

A Problem for Sarah

“A raccoon ate my Cheetos, “she said with a frown on her adorable 4 year old face.  Her mother sighed and told me she never wanted to go camping again in her whole life. She and her 2 girls had been homeless all summer and living in a tent, and the raccoon was the least of it—one night when they went to bed, they found a snake in the older daughter’s pillow case! (I’m snake phobic, so I would have been gone at that point!). As far as the girls knew, they were spending a fun summer camping, because their mom made it fun for them.

Luckily, by the time they were  visiting us at Hope House, the Opportunity Council had them staying in a motel and was finding them a more permanent place to live.  I was so impressed with the way this mother made things ok for her daughters when they most assuredly weren’t ok—a really great mom!

Hot Button Issue

The homeless issue is hot in the news right now, and I will admit that often I am frustrated with the lack of ambition some of our chronically homeless have. I am equally as frustrated with the lack of mental health resources for those who are homeless because they don’t “live in this world”, and who battle private demons every day. This subject will deserve a post to itself one day! However, today I am focusing on the moms with kids portion of the homeless population. Here are some sad statistics:

• There are approximately 600,000 homeless families in the United States of America—yes, our country. Land of the free and home of the brave; land of opportunity—unless you are a single mom with children…
• Of those 600,000 families, 84% are single moms with children. ☹
• Here’s one to make you weep: 42% of children in homeless families are under the age of 6. Yes, you read that right—babies and toddlers living in cars, tents and couch surfing with their moms. Disgraceful.
• I know from personal and professional experience that there are way too few shelter beds for families. Way, way too few! Until the focus shifts to those most innocent of our homeless and away from single adults–mostly men–we as a society cannot count ourselves as compassionate.

She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.

Proverbs 31:17

Strong Women

The above situation illustrates the silent epidemic of families/women/children that are also homeless. Causes include lack of family support, absent fathers, abusive husbands (42% of homeless single mothers are fleeing domestic abuse), interrupted education and lost jobs. Whatever the cause, these women and their children are:

• Couch surfing with friends-often moving every day to a different house or apartment, feeling like they are a burden to others.
• Sleeping in tents and cars—trying to make the best of it, trying to stay safe and make it fun for the children.
• Staying in motels if they’re lucky; hoping a kind family member or friend will cover a night inside warm and dry.
• Trying to keep their children in school and safe and fed. Doing all this while looking for work, dragging babies/toddlers with them and taking buses across town so that their children do not have to move schools!

A tall order, but these strong women are working hard for their lives. I challenge any of you to live just one day in their shoes. From trying to make sure their children have something to eat and getting them to school to figuring out where they will sleep tonight. All of this while schlepping their little ones and their few, meager possessions around while riding the bus or walking. They line up at the food bank, the local soup kitchen, DSHS and places like Hope House to try to keep their family going. These are not wimpy women! They are truly the backbone of their families and we are proud at Hope House to help in any way we can and wish we could help more!

With admiration from my amazing grace filled life!