IN PERSON : Dancing Near Top of Homelessness’ Slippery Slope
Last Christmas, Jennifer Higgins was 23 years old, six months pregnant and living in a shelter for unwed mothers. It was the latest in a series of setbacks for the ambitious but unlucky young woman, who first left home at age 14 to escape a combative family relationship.
This Christmas, Higgins is back on her feet and working several jobs to pay the rent on a Lake Forest apartment where she lives with her 8-month-old son, Hunter. Periodic homelessness has been a rite of passage for Higgins, one of many hurdles on the road to self-sufficiency.
It is an ongoing threat for Higgins, who comes of age in a time when the economy is volatile and surviving as a single mother without at least some family support makes life even more precarious.
“Things are still tough,” said Higgins, a part-time secretary, sales consultant, fashion model and would-be entrepreneur who earns about $23,000 a year from various jobs. “It takes all the energy I’ve got to pay the rent every month. I’m still teetering on the edge.”
Higgins grew up in a deceptively affluent Mission Viejo neighborhood. The manicured homes filled with all the requisite possessions of a middle-class life implied a stability that proved illusory. After years of fighting with her mother, fights that led to interventions by the police, Higgins was sent to a youth shelter at age 14.
“One of the officers suggested that there was a youth shelter in Laguna Beach and that’s where I should go,” she said, “because it was obvious that I didn’t want to be at home and my mother did not want me in her home.”
For Higgins, life in the shelter was a welcome break from the chaos of a disintegrating family relationship.
“I loved it. I never wanted to leave, and I was actually granted extra time there. I ended up staying over two months. When I left, I ended up staying with my boyfriend’s parents.”
During high school, Higgins moved several times between her parents’ and her boyfriend’s homes. After graduation from Mission Viejo High, she worked as a secretary by day, a cocktail waitress at night and picked up sporadic work as a model.
She attended community college but had to drop out because of a lack of transportation. By age 23, she was making more than $30,000 a year and the future looked hopeful, until she became pregnant. Higgins said her boyfriend was not ready to be a father, and her pregnancy effectively ended her employment as a model and cocktail waitress.
“I had to quit two of my three jobs, two jobs that provided me a substantial part of my income. That left me with a bit of a problem, because I couldn’t pay the rent. Having no support from my parents or anybody, once again I was left to my own devices. My whole world came to a screeching halt. So what else is new, right? My constant life cycle has been to fend for myself.”
Higgins found herself on the verge of homelessness. After turning to her church for advice, she was referred to the Casa Teresa Home for Single Mothers in Orange, where she lived and received counseling during the next 10 months.
“I had to put aside all my pride and say, ‘OK, what is best? What other option do I have?’ None. But I’m very adaptable. Once I make up my mind, I have no problem with it. So I moved in and I’m very, very glad that I did. I made the right choice.”
Higgins continued to work as a secretary as long as she could, paying the shelter part of her salary. A month after her baby was born, she moved out of the shelter, renting a room at a friend’s house and beginning to rebuild her life.
During the last seven months, Higgins has continued her secretarial work and picked up a sales-related job at a county computer company. As her income grew, Higgins moved into her own apartment in Lake Forest. Her modeling assignments have returned, and Higgins is also trying to open a catalog-based consumer products company with friends.
But her roughly $23,000-a-year earnings are spread thin on rent, food, utilities, car payments and child care for her son. She cannot afford health insurance but earns too much money to qualify for Medi-Cal or any other form of government assistance. She knows that a serious illness for herself or her baby, or a job loss could leave her again unable to pay rent, regardless of her fierce will to succeed.
For someone who says she has never used drugs, who has always been willing to work hard, life in the ‘90s seems unreasonably tough, Higgins says. But in her lowest moments, Higgins said her faith has sustained her when others in similar circumstances gave up hope.
“Sometimes it can be a lot easier to give in to the fear, because it’s so overwhelming. But for me, I chose to push that away. Some people let the wrong side take control. They give in to the wrong things.
Along with her ongoing battle for self-survival has been the fight for self-worth, a fight against the presumptions of those who see the economically disadvantaged as somehow morally inferior.
“I’m sick and tired of stereotypes. I’m tired of the person driving down the street in the BMW, who thinks they’re better than everybody else. They’ve got the good job and the status. Who are they to make assumptions and point fingers? All it takes is one person to knock them out of that position.
“People should realize that this can happen to anybody. With all the layoffs and the cutbacks and all the companies closing their doors, it’s always possible. It’s time for people to realize that, at the drop of a hat, their entire lives could change.”
