Everything costs more when you’re poor

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (0 Comments)

Somebody recently accused me of doing what I do just for attention and you know what? They’re absolutely right! I want to bring as much attention as possible to the reality of homelessness because that’s the only way to get rid of ignorance!

For those of you who don’t know, once you fall through the cracks and find yourself living out of a car, you will quickly discover just how much everyday things begin to eat away at your income.  For instance, once you are degraded down to homelessness, you will spend more of whatever income you might still possess on gas and maintenance to make your only source of transportation and shelter last longer. If you don’t have friends who will let you come over to take a shower or do laundry, you will have to pay to access a laundromat, a hotel or showers at a public pool and there is no way around that unless you live in a rural area but even then, you gotta pay for gas to go somewhere to set up a camp shower.

If you’re a family living out of a car, then most of your income will probably be spent on childcare if both parents are working, not to mention healthcare costs, food and anything else your family needs on a daily basis. It’s worse if you are a single parent paying for everything yourself even while working two jobs, something I can more than speak about from experience.  If there is one thing I’ve learned about being homeless, it’s that you can’t rely on false hope or have the expectation others will help you. You might get lucky here and there but the reality is…you’re on your own and you better hope your health stays intact the longer you’re stuck out here.

For all the studies so-called experts write, I find it curious that not one of them actually tracks how the poor survive on a daily basis and I’m not talking about via prostitution, drugs or violent crimes since you don’t have to be homeless to engage in those activities. Maybe that’s why so many policies fail. How do you even pretend to know how to end poverty when everyone’s situation is different? Also, the face of poverty is not the same as it used to be. People’s lives aren’t as simple as a printout of numbers on a report based off of somebody else’s statistics.

Maslow’s observations on the hierarchy of needs are very true when it comes to poverty. A person simply cannot focus on anything outside of immediate survival when most of their time is spent in trying to acquire basic necessities. Housing isn’t free and subsidized housing is becoming a pipe dream. Everybody likes to believe that education is the great equalizer but in reality it isn’t anymore. Think about it. In order to qualify for higher earning careers, a student must take on heavy debt to pay for an education (something grants can’t pay for on their own anymore since many colleges deliberately raise their costs making it almost impossible to go to college without taking on a loan). If and when a higher income is found in today’s economy, those paychecks will get eaten up paying back student loans in addition to the rising costs of living. In view of reality, how can we keep telling our young people to chase their dreams of a higher education that may or not be worth anything in the future?

For many, income will never be the same as wealth and the working poor already know this. You can have an income but what good is it if you still can’t pay for housing, healthcare, food, utilities, etc.? Everybody knows that the only thing that helps people help themselves is resources. You need resources for housing, education, healthcare, food and the list goes on. What we don’t need is endless vague waiting lists to be put on another waiting list. We also don’t need judgment that gets in the way of actually helping people. The ugly truth in America is that this country could end homelessness if it really wanted to. The problem is that ending poverty isn’t that much of a priority in this country. Maybe that’s because people don’t want to see an ugly reality that has always been there. I think it’s called being in denial.

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Saying goodbye to We Are Visible

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (4 Comments)

Nobody said goodbyes were easy but sometimes they’re inevitable. Leaving We Are Invisible to pursue local issues was bound to happen sooner or later and for me, now is a good time.

Homelessness in Seattle and surrounding areas isn’t getting any better as some would have you believe. We can use budget cuts as an excuse to do as little as possible to house our vets, families, youth, disabled and elderly yet I find it interesting that money can be found for other projects that don’t save lives. We have an epidemic that continues to be ignored despite the obvious rise in poverty.

To me, the community does a better job of taking care of itself than any politician, city council or state agency. I have seen first hand how one person can influence and impact the community they reside in despite city interference and outright obstruction in some cases. The best way I can help my community at large is to teach them how to survive because let’s face it, things are about to get a hell of a lot worse and it will be awhile before it gets better.

Our economy is crumbling. Too many mayors are reactive instead of proactive so get ready for increased criminalization of the poor and don’t be surprised when you see an expansion of your local police departments. Unless better opportunities become available for people to make a living, fear and paranoia will become rampant and I’m sure you all can imagine what the end result of a society in crises will be.

Just to be clear, I am not leaving social media, I’m just saying goodbye to We Are Visible. I still support Mark Horvath and what he does for the homeless arena and I wish him all the best for the new We Are Visible site coming soon!

My time with WAV has been a good run and I look forward to whatever the not so distant future brings!

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My name is not hopeless

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness | Poetry - (3 Comments)

My name is not useless, lazy or good for nothing

Do not mistake my needing a hand up as a hand out

For I am not a stereotype to be used to excuse your apathy

Expressed as hate mongering to waste my energy

I’ve got better things to do with time

 

I will not censor myself when truth is an uncomfortable reality

Nor will I placate your willingness to maintain

Egregious policies aimed at those you used to obtain

Obscene wealth

You cannot criminalize, demoralize and abuse

That which cannot be taken from us because

Love is not a crime

 

Do not fill my ears with the tinny sound of false hope

Since it is nothing more than static noise

Filling up empties pretending to be something

While nothing keeps adding up

 

My life is not a card board sign

Begging for compassion on street corners

And my life is not a side show to be ignored

Once the light turns green

 

Forgive my brothers and sisters sleeping

On sidewalks, benches and beneath your bridges

They never meant to be eyesores

To your conscientious upbringing

 

Forgive my elders for aging

And needing more than a fixed income

Can actually pay for

I suppose to some

A cardboard box beneath blackberries

Is something to be thankful for

 

Forgive the children of poor families

Not knowing what they live for

Mom and dad can’t find jobs so

They find shelter in their car

If they have one

 

Do more than pray for young people

Caught in the asphalt trap

Parental neglect abandoned them

To playgrounds without safety nets

Every day is the same tiring game

Of making it to the next

 

I will show you my footsteps

So you will see where I have been

The road will not be pretty but I guarantee this

Once you take the journey

You will never be the same

 

It’s because of that I know

My name is not hopeless

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27 Degrees

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness | Poetry - (0 Comments)
Frost

As some of you know, I often write poems behind the steering wheel of my mini van and last night I wrote another while staring rather absent minded at the car parked next to me as frost quickly spread across the hood and roof, looking like tiny diamonds in the street light. Sometimes I never know where my next source of inspiration comes from but this poem came to me like an old Muddy Waters blues number. Enjoy!

 

27 Degrees

 

It’s 27 degrees out baby

But you wouldn’t know that

Less you were out here

Shackled

To the cold blooded night

 

I’m runnin’ like a fire

Right before it dies

Ain’t that what poor folks do

Once the light dies in their eyes

 

27 degrees out baby

But you wouldn’t know that

Less you were out here

Shackled

To the cold blooded night

 

Golden handcuffs you’re wearin’

They shine so bright

Tell me,  tell me, can you feel it

When they’re on too tight?

 

I’m watching the frost sparkle up

Like tiny diamonds might

Cuz

It’s 27 degrees out baby

But you wouldn’t know that

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I beg to differ

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (0 Comments)
Sammiejo and Carmen

It always amazes me when people ask me why I bother doing what I do for homeless folks, especially the homeless kids. If I were to write an essay to win some big money prize, this is what I would say:

To Whom It May Concern,

You probably have never heard of me, most people haven’t but that’s alright with me. I’m not a celebrity or some hero on the cover of TIME Magazine. I’m not a glamorous model in some fancy fashion show or a television personality. I don’t have a radio show nor am I wealthy. I’m just a grown up kid from the projects doing the best I can for homeless kids and homeless adults I happen to run into. I do take more of an interest in homeless kids though simply because of an incident that happened when I lived in a place called  Tukwila, a Chinook word for “hazelnut”.

At the time, I worked two jobs because the economy was similar but not as bad as the current one. I lived in a seedy part of town in a slum lord’s apartment complex. I had moved into a small one bedroom with literally nothing but the clothes on my back and a four month old. Welfare was a joke just like it is now but I managed to keep afloat by working a minimum wage day job at Joe’s Pit Stop pumping propane and serving espresso. Across the street from Joe’s I worked the graveyard shift at the 7-11 convenience store. It was during the graveyard shift that I ran into two native girls, aged 9 and 11. I would watch as they would wander late at night around the neighborhood with younger siblings and wonder what they were all doing out. The eldest was very straightforward about her family’s homelessness and this aunt of theirs that was a known drug addict and prostitute. These two girls would come in and buy what food they could if they had the money to do so. More often though, they would beg me for food for all the kids but since I had just started working there, I barely had enough to feed my baby. Once I got paid though, I began making sandwiches for those girls to take to their siblings. I also made it clear to their aunt that she had no business encouraging these girls to walk the streets with her at night. Let’s just say a few times I threatened the woman’s health because of certain behaviors I caught her engaging in and after that she stayed clear of me on the street. I was more concerned with those two girls because I saw the path they were headed down and it scared the hell out of me.

I called social services to see if they could help but there was only so much they could do and it would take six months to investigate”. I couldn’t believe what the caseworker told me over the phone, six months??? These girls need help NOW! It wasn’t long before I noticed the girls dressing more and more provocatively and wearing heavy makeup to look older than they were. They knew I didn’t approve of their behavior and I kept doing my best to talk them out of it but even I could see how desperate they were for cash. I tried to get people from the community involved to help the family out and their attitude was very much one of not getting involved. Whenever I didn’t see these kids I wondered where they went and after three days went by without seeing them I got really  worried. I went looking for them but no one around recalled where they had went to. Then one day after I got off work, I turned on my small television to watch the news and there on the screen were pictures of those two missing girls. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave, dumped there as though they were disposable garbage. Their names were Sammiejo White, 11 and her sister Carmen  Cubias, 9. They disappeared when they went out panhandling on Aurora Avenue North in Seattle so they could buy dinner at a nearby Taco Time. That was the last time they were seen alive. Just today I found a news article on the individual police believe was responsible, a sex offender named Joseph E. Duncan III, the same scumbag guilty of killing three members of a family in Idaho and kidnapped two siblings just so he could have sex with them. He killed the boy and the poor girl, 9 year old Shasta Groene is the sole survivor of a nightmare she will live with the rest of her life.

The memory of those two girls haunts me to this day. No one gave a damn about them and assumed they couldn’t be helped but even though I’m homeless myself I cannot look away from youth on the streets. I cannot take an apathetic attitude about where those kids will end up. I do wonder what’s wrong with the parents of these kids though especially if it’s safer for them to be out on the streets than at home.

Yeah, I’m homeless myself and I have to worry about things like useless bureaucracy that puts people on endless waiting lists for housing programs you can’t apply for or don’t exist due to budget cuts. Even while I sit here typing this, I have no idea how I’m going to pay for the tab renewal on my van that needs to be done asap, or if I’ll have enough cash just to do laundry let alone put gas in my tank. I worry about constantly getting sick and my kids losing time in school due to illness. I worry about hypothermia in the  winter and heat stroke in the summer. I worry that I’ll never get a job because of being unemployed for about over three years now. It took two of those years to go through rehab just to be able to walk a straight line without falling down thanks to a weird migraine/stroke/seizure thing I had a few years ago. I worry about police harassment against the homeless because it’s already  happened to me.

With all that I have to worry about in my own day to day struggle to survive, I still feel helping homeless youth is a priority. You ask  me why I bother to help homeless youth. Maybe those who ask that believe that helping any homeless person is a waste of their time. I beg to differ.

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Some dreams don’t come true

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (3 Comments)
Dress in a donut box

Yesterday was definitely a Murphy’s Law day. Everything that could go wrong, did. The morning started off with a frantic call from formerly homeless “Legion”. He’s been struggling looking for work while couch surfing at a friend’s. He lost his medical and food stamps benefits due to 5 year time limit. His friend has been patiently waiting for Legion to pay $100 a month but per Legion, last night was the last night he could stay at his friend’s house. Legion’s health appears to be faltering as his face was grey and he showed me lumps under his jawline that appeared after he started couch surfing. He’s supposed to go to a doctor’s appointment on October 17th but without insurance, most cancer clinics won’t see him. Legion’s biggest concern isn’t homelessness, it’s what the cold will do to his daily pain. My concern is getting his cancer status checked and seeing what can be done to keep him at his friend’s house.

I spent the morning running my “son” Strey to thrift stores to get him outfitted for my daughter’s homecoming dance. After that the plan was to take him to his soon to be new apartments to sign paperwork with his new caseworker then go back to his camp and move him into his new apartment. What ended up happening was paperwork not getting to Strey’s employer before yesterday so employment verification was missing and now Strey has to show up at the apartment complex Monday but that isn’t the worst of what happened. You see, part of the housing program requirements is that youth be employed or actively looking for employment in order to keep his housing. My daughter’s first homecoming dance is today and Strey could not get tonight off from his employer. If he doesn’t go in he loses his job. If he loses his job what do you think will happen to his housing opportunity?

Add to this that I was frantically calling around and sending text messages to everyone I could think of to make my daughter’s dream night happen and accidentally sent a text intended for someone else to my daughter. I told her to disregard the accidental texts in case I could work something out. Caseworkers are great for homeless youth but try getting in touch with one after hours. That’s one of the beefs I have with social services. Homelessness doesn’t clock out for the day when you do and homeless youth have no one to call at night or on weekends if program offices are closed. Anyway, I spent last night parked outside my brother’s house where my daughter was, stalling having to tell her that after all the work I did on her dress, after all the kind donations people sent in, sending her to the dance isn’t going to happen after all and once again another setback adds to another missed birthday and another missed social function. No wonder then, that to my teen, it’s not worth the effort to have too many hopes.

I watched as Strey knocked on my brother’s door to tell my daughter he was so sorry about not being able to take her to the dance. He kept blaming himself over and over and she kept assuring him that not going to the dance is alright with her. She’d rather not have Strey lose his chance to get out of homelessness. I even asked if she wouldn’t mind going to the dance alone but she said that she didn’t want to go without Strey and she doesn’t really have any friends at her new school to hang out with so….

So here I sit using free wifi at McDonald’s and staring at the screen of my laptop dreading every minute I have to write this. I apologize to everyone who did what they could to help a homeless teen go to her first homecoming dance on her birthday only to have everything fall through the cracks. I’m looking at this dress wrapped in a donut box and the only thing I’m thinking about is how to repay everyone even though I’m not sure how long it will take me to do so. Today is just another scratch on the tip of an iceberg I call our homeless life. Yeah, we know getting out of homelessness is more important than a dance and no one knows that better than we do. After Strey and Ariella accepted the fact that the homecoming dance isn’t going to happen, they rode with me to Kent to hand out donated camping gear, a tent, a sleeping bag, camping gear, tarps, flashlights and $5 McDonald’s gift cards to homeless youth with nothing. Even little Maggie got out of the van to hand out items.

Watching my daughter last night made me realize something I hadn’t really paid attention to when I was working two jobs to avoid the situation we now live with. Like me, she is tougher than I thought.

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Homeless life is not pretty

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness | Uncategorized - (0 Comments)
Images found on Toshiba flash drive 228

I want to thank everyone who follows me around on Twitter and Facebook because to me, it shows that others actually take an interest in what I do as a homeless person and as a homeless parent. Perhaps you learned something by seeing that I’m really not all that different than everybody else. Sure, I may get involved when others don’t, won’t or can’t. I might tell the truth even if it’s inconvenient for others to hear.

In turn I’ve learned a lot about people just from observation. For instance, when I first wrote a letter to change.org about what it’s like to be a homeless mother, it generated more hits than I thought was possible. To me, it seemed incredible that so many people were either astounded that homeless families were everywhere or didn’t want to believe what my experiences have been. So for those of you still “baffled” by us homeless parents, here’s a list for you to consider:

  1. How do you keep a roof over your head if child  costs more than your rent?
  2. Just because there’s a child support order in place, there’s no guarantee you’ll receive it and if dad can only find minimum wage jobs, just how much child support do you think will be received?
  3. Don’t assume there’s family help especially if relatives are barely making it themselves or choose not to get involved because it’s not “their problem”.
  4. Don’t tell people to “get on welfare” if you don’t know what the current welfare system is or the fact that programs are being cut…permanently. In case you didn’t know, there’s a “process” to see if
    you qualify and then you may be put on a waiting list. Section 8 for housing may not even be open to apply for in your state.
  5. Don’t assume someone can just show up at a shelter and get help. In case you haven’t been watching the news, many shelters are closing due to lack of financial support. If you have shelters still open, it’s possible there will be a waiting list after being seen by an intake specialist because not all shelters will take you. Not only that, the shelter in question may not be a safe place to be and you may get turned away due to not enough room.
  6. Don’t assume that just because your community has ample services available, things will be the same in other cities or states. Also, it may not be feasible for a homeless person to just pick up and move where you are.
  7. Get ready to have a family be split apart if local shelters take either men only, women only or women with kids up to a certain age only.
  8. There’s a time limit on how long folks can stay in a shelter so don’t assume that just because they’re in one, “they’ll be ok now”.
  9. Don’t assume that families are homeless because of drugs, alcohol, mental illness or being irresponsible with finances.
  10. Little things you take for granted that act as a “suspension system” for you simply don’t exist out here, like being able to shower every day or get to an indoor bathroom. Having a state id., driver’s license, mailing address, place to do laundry or a cell phone are things that can prevent a homeless person from being able to get work or have access to services.
  11. This is for educators: Homeless kids have to do their homework either at a public library (if there’s one nearby and they can get to it), a restaurant or in a car. If they’re too busy trying to survive, don’t assume they’re falling behind in school due to not trying hard enough. Also, it’s easier to get sick out here and it takes longer to recover without your own home so absences due to illness are common. When it comes to school functions, many times homeless families will opt out if they can’t afford nice clothes or uniforms for their kids, can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to deal with that even though schools were told we were homeless. My teen couldn’t join most sports because she couldn’t afford the costs involved with being on a team.
  12. For families living out of their cars, a minimum wage job will barely keep a vehicle maintained, insured and the tank full of gas. Gas is always a priority because there aren’t too many safe places to park for the night so sleep is a luxury that comes in naps or not at all.
  13. As far as food banks and public feeds are concerned, if you can get to them, they will help stretch a food budget especially if you’re a homeless youth who only gets $200 a month in foodstamps. By the way foodstamps won’t buy any hot foods from a grocery store deli so if you don’t have a kitchen or way to cook food, you’ll be eating cold items. The other thing is that even though you can buy groceries, if you don’t have a refrigerator to store anything so buying perishables is on a day to day basis. Also, if you’re in a heavy need area, public feeds can only bring so much food before having to turn folks away, the same is happening to local food banks. If you didn’t already know this, most food banks allow homeless folks to visit once a week and if you’re housed, once a month.
  14. Don’t assume homeless kids are necessarily anti-social because they don’t show up to birthday invitations or dances. They might be ashamed of their clothes or the fact that they can’t buy a gift. Homeless kids are acutely aware of the fact they can’t have sleepovers with their friends and some parents have a problem letting their kids visit their homeless friends at a shelter.

As for me, I will continue to post on Twitter and Facebook about what I deal with on a daily basis regardless of who might find it uncomfortable to watch. Homeless life is not pretty. It’s a day to day struggle that goes on whether you’re part of it or watching it from afar. Maybe you’ll get uncomfortable enough to go out and do something about it, maybe not. Either way, don’t say you weren’t informed….

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Meet some people in the neighborhood

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (2 Comments)

I’d like to introduce you to the people I meet in Kent that are doing different things in the community. Now what would happen if each of these groups joined together to solve homelessness in their own community? You business owners, don’t think homelessness does not affect you, it does and what you seem to forget is that many homeless people do work and spend money in your community. If you fail to help invest in the welfare of your own community, why should homeless folks patronize your businesses?Just because we don’t “look” homeless, doesn’t mean we aren’t.

By going directly into the community and talking to the people themselves about homelessness and who the homeless are, stereotypes can and will be broken. Every day I am amazed at how much people are afraid to face a growing reality in this country. Each of us must wake up and take a proactive stance in making the communities we live in a better place.

What’s amazing to me is that the city councils, police departments and agencies have a resource in homeless people they have not yet begun to tap into. Think about it, how many homeless people are on advising panels?How is it that within two weeks of hanging out in any given community, I figured out where and when the drug deals go down? Many of us who do not have addiction problems or mental health issues would gladly watch a property in exchange for a safe place to park at night. Vacant buildings sitting around on the taxpayer’s dime could be turned over to responsible community programs to be used as drop-in centers for the homeless especially for homeless youth. Many homeless would gladly volunteer to help maintain the building and keep it and the grounds clean. Oh and forget about that nimby attitude seing’s how the Regional Justice Center is right smack dab in the heart of downtown Kent with a jail attached to it…..

We can find all kinds of “reasons” for not doing the right thing. How about finding all the reasons to actually DO the right thing?

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In search of a hero

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (5 Comments)

You know it’s funny, the way people are. In times of chaos and what seems like never ending misery, people go looking for heroes. Someone they can look up to for inspiration and maybe a little encouragement too. If ever there was a time for heroes, now certainly looks like a good time. The thing is though, the very people being hailed as heroes don’t see themselves that way. Often they don’t realize it until someone mentions it so I have a request to make……

Please don’t call me that. I don’t consider myself to be extraordinary. What I do and how I feel about helping other people comes from spending a lifetime watching other people’s pain. I do not understand how anyone can look a homeless family in the face and walk away. I do not understand politicians willing to hold a country hostage to further interests for the few instead of the many yet all the while the people suffer. The so-called “moral majority” is anything but moral. How can they be when they continue to undermine programs to help the poor? You wanna do more with less? Start by eliminating government waste and useless bureaucracy.

I get emails all the time from a lot of people asking me how and why I haven’t lost my mind yet. How do you know I haven’t? Lol…but seriously, this is how I look at my situation. Yes, I’m homeless and it was a tough decision to “out” my situation to everybody that I’ve been homeless for about eight years now. I did it because I know I’m not the only one living this way. My thinking was and still is that you don’t have to be housed to make a difference. Some would say I could make more of a difference if I were housed but is that really true? Who better to talk about this life than someone actually living it? We all know there aren’t enough programs or funding to help the massive numbers of people entering homelessness on a daily basis so while I’m out here trying to help myself, I might as well talk to folks about the reality I live in. Fact of the matter is…I will be out here for awhile and there’s no getting around that. Until major changes occur in social services, so will the rest of us.

Even with all the hurdles I face, I don’t sit around dwelling on doom and gloom. I can understand why some people go that route since many are caught up on a snag called fear. Fear of not knowing where their lives are going or where they’ll end up is a natural reaction to being shocked into hardship. Been there, done that. I too went through a stage of shock the first time I was homeless. Mainly because the man I thought I would spend forever with, packed up everything and ran away when I was eight and a half months pregnant. What would you do if you came home after a weekend with family only to be told by the doorman of the building you lived in that while you were away, your significant other brought in a moving truck and moved out? I was homeless, only had the clothes on my back and didn’t know what to do. I was told by DSHS that because I was single, I didn’t qualify for help until after the baby was born. I couldn’t get Section 8 back then either and that was 16 years ago! The difference then was that jobs were available and I was working through my pregnancy and after delivery. Didn’t matter that I almost died in the hospital from extreme blood loss, I had to keep working and had no time to “go home and rest” like my doctor kept advising me to do.

With a newborn in tow, I left the hospital 3 days later and bounced around from the YWCA and cheap motels thanks to the generosity of bus drivers. That’s right, metro bus drivers that guessed my situation because they saw me riding buses all night to stay warm in the winter and to be somewhat safe until the sun came up. I remember wandering around for about 3 days in a state of stupor. I couldn’t think and I couldn’t feel. Back then, welfare only paid $347.00 a month and when my firstborn was 4 months old, I found a cheap, rundown apartment in Tukwila that was $340.00 a month, utilities were extra. I learned to live an entire year without electricity.

The economy was bad then but not like it is now. I managed to find someone I could trust to watch my baby while I worked two minimum wage jobs to get off welfare. I succeeded and paid my way through various classes to upgrade my job market skills. Even though I could pay rent and childcare, that was all I managed to pay for. I still had to use the local food banks to feed my daughter and get diapers. While working nights at the airport, there were times I felt like I couldn’t keep living this way. The only thing that kept me there was the little photograph I kept in my pocket of my daughter. Whenever I felt like giving up, I looked at that picture to remind me of what I was working for. Something about staring at her little face made it all seem worthwhile. That’s what I do now. I look for those little moments that make life worthwhile. …and so should you. Don’t let opportunities for good memories slip away from you. In the end, you’ll regret it.

I’m nobody’s hero. I’m one of you just doing the best I can.

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By order of the Mayor

Posted by Carey Fuller in Homelessness - (1 Comments)

As I am still waiting for a response from Suzette Cooke regarding the open letter I sent her, I thought the voting public of Kent would like to hear from some of its disenfranchised youth. I find it interesting that it is almost unanimous among the homeless youth that Kent police officers declare that it is by order of the Mayor, Suzette Cooke, that they are trespassing homeless youth out of public parks. All of this of course, was enforced heavily right before the Kent Cornucopia Days event. There are those in the community who are speculating that the only reason the Mayor attended last year’s One Night Count was so that police would know which areas to target when sweeping the city of homeless youth.

When I asked several homeless youth if anyone from the city of Kent, including the police department, even offered to help them find services, put them in contact with agencies that could help or downright act like they know what compassion means, I got an overwhelming “No!” Private agencies and churches are doing what they can but they acknowledge there aren’t enough housing options available to these youth. The city of Kent isn’t providing any alternative options either. According to some of the community leaders I’ve been speaking to regarding their dealings with the Kent city council, it has become apparent that there is a history of failing to deal with diversity issues and in case you didn’t know it, diversity doesn’t just encompass the color of your skin.

To the voters of Kent I’d like to say this, you are responsible for holding your elected officials accountable for failures within your community. Where are you in asking your leaders for a better response than using the local police to round up homeless kids simply because they’re an eyesore that might make the city look bad? Where is the diversity training for police officers when dealing with homeless youth? How educated are you on the issues of homelessness? When you see kids on the street begging for spare change for food or bus fare, do you ask them how they became homeless? Are you sponsoring community initiatives to get these kids into safer environments? Are you actively involved in making your community a better place for everyone?

I watch you walk past these kids with looks of disdain. I’ve heard your comments about how all homeless kids are responsible for where they are because they just don’t want to “follow the rules” or “they must be on drugs”. The kids I talked to told me that they “spange” so they can have money to buy food or ride the buses all night in the winter as that is the only safe way they can sleep. It’s one of the ways they have learned how to avoid police harassment and as one kid put it “What else can we do? Where are we supposed to go? It’s illegal to be homeless in Kent.” One of the reasons they are saying its “illegal” to be homeless in Kent is because they have been put in a jail cell when they had nowhere else to go.

“Matt” told me that he rode his bike 20 feet without a bike helmet (he doesn’t own one) and a police officer gave him a $90.00 ticket. “Matt” asked this officer how he was supposed to pay it since he’s homeless and can’t get a job? If he doesn’t pay it, he will go to jail. “Matt” shrugged his shoulders and said “How are they going to serve me? I have no address.” When “Matt” brought this up to the officers they shrugged it off and told him they didn’t care, it wasn’t their problem. Police officers, whether you like it or not, you are often the first contact for these kids and your behavior represents the city you are sworn to protect and serve. Callous attitudes translate into a negative image in the minds of all you come into contact with.

Police Chief Ken Thomas, what kind of diversity training are officers under your command engaged in, not only on the homelessness issue but on racial profiling as well? Citizens of Kent I’d like to tell you about an incident I had with one of Kent’s finest at Morrill Meadows Park about two and half, maybe three years ago. At the time, I was working two jobs while living out of a 1981 Minnie Winnebago.  My eldest daughter was in school and my youngest was at my babysitter’s. I was on my way to pick them up but had to pull over and Morrill Meadows Park was the closest place I could do it. The left side of my face went numb and my left arm was going numb as well. I started shaking uncontrollably and was slumped over my steering wheel. I thought I was having a stroke. A police car pulled up behind my RV and a female officer tapped on the driver’s side window. I managed to roll down the window and turn my head towards her. This officer asked me what I was doing at the park. I managed to turn my head towards her and my speech was slurred when I asked her what the probable cause was for approaching my vehicle. I also asked if she was in the habit of targeting people of color, people in RV’s or people of color that happen to be living out of RV’s as I noticed she said absolutely nothing to the white couple across the parking lot who were in their RV as well. Not once did the officer bother to notice that something was wrong with me. She just stared at me, then turned and walked away. She got in her squad car and drove off. Chief Thomas, what does the law say about an officer who fails to offer assistance to a civilian who requires it? I never saw this officer call over the radio that she was stopping a vehicle since I was already parked and I’m willing to bet a report was never filed on it. Not once did this officer bother to even ask if I was alright. Needless to say, I have already sought legal counsel against the Kent Police department……..By the way, I saw this same officer the other day in the parking lot of Starbucks near the golf course.

Enjoy the video…..

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