Poverty and the Ripple Effect

It was 1998. I had been a college student until my father was late sending his child support and I missed enrollment. Coincidentally, my father no longer paid child support if I wasn't a student. So my financial capability was diminished by a small amount. I was an actor, and worked 2 part-time jobs while performing. I lived with a series of college students, usually 3 others in a two bedroom apartment, using the same $800 deposit each time. It was a cozy arrangement, but very much a paycheck to paycheck existence.

It was December when disaster struck. I returned to my apartment to find it was empty of roommates and my deposit was nowhere to be found. Just like that, I was homeless. The next 6 months was a downward spiral. I got fewer hours at work as my appearance deteriorated. I had minimal sanitary facilities at my disposal, a McDonald's restroom, a shower on the beach, but nary an ironing board was to be seen. Living from the park to an occasional night at a friend's home when parents were away, I felt my despair grow daily. Finally in late may, I was told by my employer that I was to be fired if I could not find a home and an iron on a regular basis. I gave up, called my mother I had not spoken to in a couple years, and left California.

Becoming homeless is that easy. The final step of poverty, it is affecting more in this troubled economic time than any other in recent memory. It is hard to face the challenges of homelessness, since a lot of social welfare programs require an address or phone. Furthermore, the lack of an address makes applying for a new job difficult, not to mention hygiene issues, and most shelters in large cities are wait listed. According to an article printed by the Greenville News on January 29^th of 2009, there are no official counts right now of the numbers of homeless. However, the same article said you could find 1000 to 1200 homeless in the shelters on any given night in December 2008. Pastor Richard Pitts, of Tremont Church of God, says Greenville, SC has more homeless than we estimate and it is only going to get worse as the economy continues to falter. Furthermore, according to Pastor Pitts, the number of people too mentally ill to consistently use shelters is significant, and therefore skews the estimate. "Poor people sleeping under the bridges locally, and squatting in abandoned buildings and in the parks. A number commit a petty crime on purpose- after all a bed and 3 square meals ain't so bad a deal, comparatively," said Pastor Pitts in a conversation Wednesday morning.

I was told by him that Greenville is supposed to be a model by which Columbia and Charleston look to for guidance. According to the Upstate Homeless Coalition website, Greenville has 6 places a homeless or transitional adult individual can turn to for help with shelter, but space is limited. Pastor Pitts informed me there is a local church on Rutherford Road that does allow the homeless to sleep in the parking lot, but I was unable to confirm this. Looking at the resource guide available on the Coalition website, I cannot help but think the number of resources is woefully inadequate, and the Pastor and I are working to create a new set of social service programs for the impoverished through Tremont C.O.G. but we both know it is just another drop in a bucket growing daily.

I believe that poverty should be one of the easiest problems to address and in Greenville homelessness could be virtually eliminated if the communities would just ban together and work on the problem. Perhaps a couple of homeless communes or something of that nature may help. Everyone should care, for poverty just an incident away for everyone. According to a discussion we had in one of my social work classes, unemployment might actually be as high as 20% or more if the numbers took into account those who have run out of benefits, or never qualified in the first place. How many of these may swell the ranks of the homeless and poverty stricken shortly?

According to the Greenville News article, the county is attempting to get an accurate count due to new regulations passed through the federal government. I can only hope the real numbers will open the eyes of the people of Greenville to the plight of their neighbors.