HOMELESS DAY TWO: A day in the life of a Colorado Springs family
By Elise Schmelzer ?and Emily Donovan; by Elise Schmelzer ?and Emily Donovan The Gazette - | |
Proquest LLC |
by
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"Next stop - the shelter!" Josephine says.
"You seriously said that out loud?" Amiracle says.
Josephine shrugs. It's just a fact: Home for now is the
The Thills are one of at least 110 homeless families with children in the
The Thills didn't choose to be homeless, Josephine says. But they make the best of it.
At the crack of dawn
On a typical day, Josephine wakes up without an alarm at
Timmy, 4, still skips T, U and V when he sings the alphabet. Faith, 5, scribbles in a notebook and says she'll write a book one day. Amiracle, 11, wants to invent a cheaper bus pass because she says getting home shouldn't be so expensive.
"They're why I wake up in the morning," Josephine says.
Timothy, who sleeps in the men's section of the shelter, has to be at work at
"I just get up because I have to," he says. "I've got responsibilities. Plus, if I don't want to be here (in the shelter), I've got to do something to change that."
Josephine's job is also full time - 24/7 even. The kids have to be with her at all times, according to the shelter's rules.
"It's not easy," Josephine says. "But I do it."
The back seat of their 2003 Hyundai Accent is strewn with trash and kids' toys, but it gets Timothy to work and Josephine and the kids to
Then they're back at the shelter, waiting for its
10 places in 11 years
Josephine, 39, has never had a job outside of being a mom.
The month she graduated high school in
When Amiracle was 4, Josephine met Timothy in an
In
She was wrong.
Instead, she found a shortage of affordable housing. For every 100 people making up to about
In her 11 years, Amiracle has lived in 10 places by her count: shelters, with friends, family members' homes, motels and a mobile home. Her family moved back to the shelter in June when they couldn't pay for a motel room.
Today, breakfast was a shared sandwich leftover from the day before, plus bags of chips and soda. By
Josephine and the kids don't always eat at the shelter or
Faith and Timmy tire of the toys and start pulling every book off the CDC's single bookshelf, throwing them onto a circular kids' table. Timmy brings over two books.
Josephine haltingly reads aloud, struggling to pronounce the word "hexagonal."</p>
She has dyslexia and is a self-described "slow learner." This, along with depression and anxiety, is what qualifies her for disability checks. Both of her parents were on disability, too, she says.
Tough to do homework
Getting ready for a day trip to a water playground, the girls parade around the CDC in an imaginary fashion show.
The kids don't have swimsuits, so they're borrowing clothes from the center - nothing fancy or for keeps but something different. Something Amiracle feels pretty in.
Amiracle says the kids at school make fun of her acne and her name.
"They pick on me because of my face," she says.
About
"It's going to be good for the kids to get out," Josephine says.
They picnic, eating bologna and cheese on white bread.
Amiracle sees a boy she knows from school and tries to say hi. When he just looks without waving back, she turns to her mom. "He's ugly, isn't he?"
Amiracle has a couple of friends at school but only one knows she's one of 99 students living in a shelter.
Being homeless "actually affects school pretty good," she says. At the CDC, she has to do homework during a set time every day. She says she doesn't like school and wants to be a nurse or invent cheaper bus tickets when she grows up.
As the shade recedes from the family's picnic table around
What's the address?
Back at the CDC, Josephine distributes chocolate snack cakes and tosses Amiracle and Faith's borrowed wet clothes in the laundry. Josephine has to borrow dry clothes from the CDC for all of them.
Josephine and the kids leave at
The family decides to run errands, driving with the windows down and arms resting on the windowsills. Amiracle likes running errands, doing anything outside the CDC.
"'Cause it makes us get away from that place," she says. "We don't have to be there all the time."
After Timothy stops at a pawnshop to make an interest payment on bikes that used to belong to Timmy and Faith, he holds a tray of free Blow Pop suckers down at Timmy's eye level.
"Pick whatever you want," he says.
He does this every time they stop in.
A few doors down, Josephine and the girls are figuring out how to qualify for a mail-in rebate for a new smartphone. The family is trying to switch from Cricket's services to T-Mobile to save money. Josephine needs the phone for the navigation and to keep in touch with Timothy when he's at work, she says.
She goes through the standard paperwork: name, date of birth, current number, address.
Address. Josephine pauses, pen held in the air.
"I'll have to ask my husband when he comes back in here about the address," she says. "I . I don't know it yet."
Rare day to celebrate
Josephine says they don't get to celebrate much, but today is one of those days.
At the CDC, they eat pan-fried pork chops with honey barbecue sauce and boxed macaroni and cheese. Faith stacks the empty plates and carries them to the kitchen.
"Thank you, Baby," Josephine says to Faith. "Give me a five."
The kids are each in charge of a chore after dinner, doing their part to return the CDC to how clean it was before the families came in at
To live at the shelter, the Thills have to follow its rules. The
Josephine wants to get a job like her husband's and a place of their own by August. But it's hard to find a three-bedroom place for less than
At
Timothy will go back to his single bunk in the men's dormitory. He has to sleep away from his family at the shelter. It was hard at first, but he got used to it, he said.
"I'm used to Timmy up against me," he said. "I always knew he was OK because I could feel his little feet."
And it all starts over in the morning.
"Every day we wake up thinking, 'OK. What more can we do?' " Josephine says.
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POSTSCRIPT: Since the initial reporting of this story, Timothy lost his job manufacturing screwdrivers. He also was asked to leave the shelter after a dispute with another resident over his reserved laundry time, he said. The Thill family moved into a motel in
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Wordcount: | 1719 |
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