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Working homeless feel slow economy’s crunch
Fort Collins Coloradoan
Nov. 9, 2002
Columns

Prepare to be surprised. There are over 800 children in the Fort Collins and Loveland school districts that are currently homeless. Even more surprising, perhaps, is that these children belong to families with one or more working parents.

Does this sound like an oxymoron to you? The working homeless?

It’s happening. A combination of factors such as a struggling economy, housing inflation and cutbacks are creating a significant population of people who are working but unable to keep their heads above water – these are our underemployed.

Take for example, a single mother working as a cleaner at a hotel. Because of the slow down in the economy, there are less business travelers, therefore less hotel guests, therefore less revenue. Her eight-hour day is cut to a six-hour day. Her reduced income now means she is unable to cover her basic expenses such as rent, food and transportation. She also learns that the eligibility criteria for subsidized childcare has changed, cutting out nearly 500 children in Fort Collins and Loveland – and her kids are among the count. She’s likely to become one of the ‘invisible homeless’, living in her car or a friend’s garage.

Our Executive Director Gordan Thibedeau is concerned. "Over the last year," he said, "we’ve seen a spike in people requesting assistance in many areas. It’s easy to see these people as having an entitlement mentality, but that’s not true. The majority want to be making it, they want to have a secure life and are usually ashamed to ask for assistance."

Neighbor To Neighbor is one of the agencies funded by United Way that’s working on the problem. It aims to prevent homelessness by providing counseling and financial aid, but demand has more than tripled.

"People are crowding our waiting room and lining up outside the door," Executive Director Rusty Collins said. "Most of them are gainfully employed but earning less, and with the high cost of housing and lower wages, they’re spending more than half their income on rent. When they do that, they can get by for a couple of months, but if something comes up, they have no safety net."

The cost of preventing homelessness is far less than the cost of treating it. An underemployed family that becomes homeless will also require the services of many agencies to provide shelter, food, counseling and so on. But for those who find themselves in that situation, United Way is working towards a Day Shelter to provide a warm refuge and act as an outreach center to help coordinate services that best treat the root causes.

Your United Way dollars are working hard through programs such as Neighbor To Neighbor and projects such as the day shelter, to help people who are trying hard to make it. These people are our neighbors, people who serve us in shops, restaurants and many other places around town. By giving to United Way, you are helping create a better community for us all.

-By Meg Brown a.k.a.: Sophie Waghorn

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