PHOTO/JIMWESTPHOTO.COM
NAPERVILLE, IL — “Josh” and his mom were halfway out the door when Barb, the shelter director, stopped them to introduce us. His backpack drooped on his 7-year-old shoulders as he mumbled “hello.” His mom explained they were late getting him to school when he interrupted.
“Today is show-and-tell, and I don’t have anything to show,” he uttered. Bad enough he’s staying at a homeless shelter, but to go to school late and without a show-and-tell item. Excruciating.
My mind scrambled. I had nothing except business cards…and the shirt on my back. My lame effort to create a big deal with the business card was, well, lame. That’s when my friend Barb chimed in, “You see her ‘These Little Piggies Are Homeless’ t-shirt,” she pointed out. Both Josh and his mom responded, “Awww.”
I retrieved one of my shirts I had just donated and handed my Piggies shirt to Josh. Barb gave him pointers to make sure he wasn’t going to be traumatized by revealing his homelessness. And they left.
I recalled my pre-HEAR US shelter director days when birthdays, show-and-tell, Halloween parties and science fair projects increased the challenges of accommodating a growing number of kids with their parents who were homeless. Kids like Josh matter, over 1 million homeless students at last count.
Their shelter is the only shelter in 14 southern Indiana counties, a former church with a capacity of 50; now holding 80+, children with parents, single men and women, in an unavoidable dysfunctional communal setting.
Barb shared the plight of 50+ men and women living under the nearby Interstate bridges. They’re about to be displaced with nowhere to go.
Not all is bleak in this Ohio River town across from Louisville, KY. Because of federally-funded Interstate highway construction, Jeffersonville gets to spiff up their downtown.
Under the guise of “historic” housing, up to 10 houses are being moved to make way for Interstate exit ramps. Somewhere, in the cash-strapped state of Indiana, someone managed to cobble together $4 million for this moving project. Barb showed me five houses that had already been moved. My jaw dropped.
One house had obvious value, historic or at least structural. The others were unoccupied “shanties” of little value, a waste of $4 million.
So Josh, his mother, and dozens of other babies, toddlers, children, teens, parents and single men and women struggle to survive indescribable challenges of severely overcrowded communal living. Dozens of other homeless men and women, lepers in their own town, can be uprooted and scattered like yesterday’s garbage, landing in even worse straits than they are today. The quality of life for the entire community is jeopardized.
But $4 million can be spent to relocate empty, limited-value houses?
Maybe Josh’s next show-and-tell project can be a tour of these houses to call attention to how it’s OK to use federal and state money for useless projects while dozens of homeless kids and adults languish. I’ll be happy to drive Josh for that tour.
Links:
http://hearus.us
