By Erika Meyers
According to the advocacy group Homes for the Homeless, over one million children will be homeless tonight. Often, the parents of those children are unemployed, but that’s not always the case. A host of causes can turn a family’s life upside down.
Freedom House, which helps homeless veterans, is run by an agency that also provides shelter for families. "The current influx of homeless locally and nationally happens to be families with children, especially female-headed families with children," says Kelan Craig, a housing specialist at Freedom House.
While there are many different factors involved for people struggling with poverty, one common scenario is a change in the structure of the family. If a parent dies, or if a divorce leaves one parent in charge of many children, financial strains can quickly reach the breaking point. Craig cites several other common causes of homelessness for families.
"Recent studies have shown that an overwhelming majority are one paycheck or one medical emergency away from disaster," Craig says. "A sudden illness, the loss of transportation, and the loss of a childcare provider are circumstances that might result in the termination of employment. Additionally, we are faced with a changing economy that has seen a large shift from high-paying manufacturing jobs to low-paying service sector jobs that provide minimal benefits. Simply being employed no longer guarantees that one will rise above the poverty line."
In Ohio, the federal minimum wage remains at $5.15 an hour. It would be over $8.50 an hour, though, if it took inflation from the past 35 years into consideration. Currently, full-time minimum wage workers earn just $10,712 a year -- well under the $16,090 necessary in 2005 for the caretaker of a family of three to be at the poverty line.
Because the federal government has not raised the minimum wage since 1997, several states have adjusted their wages above the federal level. Ohio, however, allows its employees to work at wages below the minimum under certain circumstances. For instance, employees who receive tips can work for as low as $2.13 an hour, which can be financially devastating for those who struggle to afford a place to live. In Ohio, residents wanting to rent a two-bedroom apartment on a minimum-wage salary would need to work 94 hours a week for all 52 weeks of the year.
Candice is a mother of three, and works various minimum-wage jobs. She is currently in a shelter that helps single mothers, and the shelter’s director asked that Candice’s last name be withheld for her protection. Candice has experienced life on a budget.
"When you’re a single mom, you make it work," she says. "You budget and make it work. I’ve had it good and I’ve had it bad. I know how to struggle."
Despite the problems that low-wage jobs can entail, various government programs have offered some help to those in need. The Federal Community Development Block Grant Program, for example, funds many programs and activities like shelters and after-school programs in low- to moderate-income communities.
"Let me emphasize that grants like the CDBG are given only if the community is able to demonstrate a need," Craig says. "Even in a rural county like Portage, our shelters are often filled to capacity and have waiting lists. There is a need."
Despite this, some skeptics argue that government programs keep people from helping themselves, and make them reliant on government assistance. Assistance provided by the government, though, can be instrumental in providing help to those who are struggling from paycheck to paycheck.
"You can use it as a stepping stone," says Candice. "I use it to get from point A to point B. I don’t continue to use it if I don’t need it."
Other options for those in poverty include working more hours at one job, or getting an additional job. But for single parents, jobs without benefits like daycare can cause a conflict of priorities that pits spending time at work all day against spending time with their children.
"If you can tell a single mother, working two jobs totaling 60 hours a week at minimum wage and paying $500 on daycare, that she is undeserving of the food stamps that she is receiving to feed her children, you have clearly divorced yourself from reality," Craig says. "Being a single parent is a noble full-time job that is often overlooked by those critiquing impoverished individuals."