Government Services for Homeless and Disadvantaged Essential

Posted by Carla Marie Boulianne Nov 28, 2008

Let me share a little secret. My family went through an extended period of homelessness and housing insecurity when I was a child. We stayed in motels, slept in cars, washed in bowling alley bathrooms, and squatted outdoors when we need to relieve ourselves.

We were cold. Very cold. Imagine taking turns huddling over a van engine compartment for warmth, but only being able to turn on the engine every few hours to save gas.

We were hungry. Imagine your only meal as that school hot lunch and crying the last day of school because you knew a hungry summer awaited.

As a child, I was humiliated by our homelessness. I hid it from friends in school and created excuses for why playdates were always at their houses. I was ostracized when classmates discovered my family secret. As an adult, I'm not humiliated by my childhood homelessness. I am angry when people talk about poverty in America with no understanding of the impact of our system on struggling families.

As a graduate student at Emory University, students from privileged private school backgrounds would talk of the need to reform welfare and social services so that lazy people would stop living off the government and get a job.

I am the product of free hot lunch, government cheese, TANF (and its predecessor AFDC), subsidized energy bills, food stamps, Section 8 housing, and Pell Grants. It is crucial that these social services are preserved for the next generation of homeless children. Helping the most disadvantaged vote is one way.