A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : Testimony : ONE PERSON’S STORY: TIP OF THE ICEBERG : The Homeless ‘Are Regular Folks’

I’m the director of Client Programs for Harbor Interfaith Shelter in San Pedro, where we distribute food, attempt job training and provide temporary shelter, while homeless families try to get back on their feet.

They don’t want to be homeless, most had never imagined themselves in that situation. It’s not uncommon that I hear a mother say: “I need to talk to you about a place to stay but I’m not homeless; they are people who sleep on boxes on Skid Row and they drink a lot, that’s not me and my kids.” There are people who, when we say, “You are eligible for a particular government benefit because you are homeless,” are still reluctant to say that word. They just don’t want to take on that stigma.

The tip of the iceberg are the few that you can readily identify as homeless. Most are not ranting at the bus stop, they’re not filthy, they’re not emaciated or substance abusers; they are regular folks who blend into our society, except they are very, very poor. When I go to the children’s section of the library and I see a woman sitting there reading to her two kids, she doesn’t look like she’s homeless. She’s well-dressed, she’s clean, her kids are clean and well behaved, but yet she’s there six hours later because she has nowhere to go.

We have well over a 100 families on our waiting list. Families we are forced to reject will go back to a variety of places at night. They might go to the park, or a car, they might sleep in a church, if the minister allows that. Some family might take them in for a night. They’re living in storage sheds or garages, wherever they can. We try to refer them, but other shelters are also full.

There was a time when we didn’t have so many homeless families and there was a short time when it was a hot item in the media and people were willing to donate. Now I sense that the community is angry that there are still so many homeless people among us. Or they have come to accept that families are always going to be homeless or it’s their own fault. But the vast majority of the homeless we now see are the victims of a bad economy and a lack of affordable housing.

An increasing number are single mothers on Aid to Families With Dependent Children, and with each welfare cut we see more who just can’t afford shelter. We forget that most of the people on welfare are children. By cutting back the AFDC, and making children hungrier, and children poorer, and children homeless, we are really cutting off our nose to spite our face. We can’t expect children who are growing up without enough to eat and no place to stay to become productive stable adults.

I grew up middle class in Anaheim and my family, which is still there, has a hard time believing that we have hungry children. But we have many. We have a Girl Scout program here. The kids show up for the camp and they have nothing or very little in their lunch because there was very little at home that day. Hunger is more hidden than homelessness. You can’t see that somebody’s tummy doesn’t have food in it.

People often say, “Folks on welfare--why don’t they get jobs?” One big answer is the majority of them are children and they’re not supposed to be working, they’re supposed to be in their playpens, or in their strollers or going to school. The other reason is, of course, jobs are scarce. There have been layoffs throughout Los Angeles County. Here in the South Bay area, we have been very hard hit. Recently the cannery shut down, Todd Shipyards shut down, also we are inside the belt of the defense industry, where there are more and more layoffs occurring.

Todd used to be a employer of welders, and in the past, families coming to the shelter would often go to a skills training course. Unfortunately, by the time these people finished, Todd had closed down. There are former Todd employees who went on unemployment for as long as they could, but now find their families are on AFDC benefits. These are hard working folks who never thought they would be poor, never thought they’d be on welfare, never thought they would be homeless.

With our country in a deep recession, and Southern California struggling, it is hard times for all. I grew up believing that people were on welfare because they wanted to be; working here, I see differently.