Invisible Population

I'm tired and cranky from my Labor Day catch up—reading my emails. Yet another post appeared in my feed complaining about the "Homeless" in terms that sounded very close to discussing an infestation of vermin. These are people. And sometimes their pets are with them.

Wherever I have lived, I have seen and spoken with, and often fed, the homeless people and their pets when I come across them.

And while there are bad apples in every barrel (just look at the political barrel, for a start)—the majority are simply people who are economic refugees. For whatever reason, they have fallen out of the system, and are now in the vast limbo that works against them at every turn—making it a sisyphean task to try to get a job to make enough to rent a roof, and rejoin the mainstream.

Medical bills, student loans, bad relationships gone worse with credit history destroyed, bad choices (yes, some of it is because they did not choose wisely)—living on the poverty line and having an emergency—all of these and more can contribute to the loss of housing. And in many cases, these folks did not have a support structure in place, either.

By support structure I mean family or friends who could take them in while they get back on their feet. Often the circle of family and friends at this economic level are on the thin edge themselves. I have seen people lose their apartments, because their family members stayed "too long" and/or had pets. Which then added even more people to the invisible population.

And I have seen the kinds of emergencies that can push a person to live in their car, while trying to get their finances in order. Hell, I lived in my car with my two dogs for awhile when I left a bad relationship. I had money in savings, but I needed to find a place that accepted dogs and I was not going to give up my dogs. So it took nearly two months and a lot of moving around in the car to find a place to rent.

So I know from experience that it was my choice... but it was hard, nonetheless. And I didn't actually fall out of the mainstream, I danced along the edge for several months, though.

One of my friends, who I will call K, was working part-time while her husband was supposedly self-employed and her pre-teen was at school. The husband had a heart attack and died (while he had been awaiting a referral appointment to a heart specialist for months). After he died, she discovered he had not paid taxes in the past decade, the house was about to be foreclosed. They were not eligible for assistance of any kind, couldn't get food stamps—and were too shell-shocked to ask for help. And you can imagine that the part-time job didn't really cut it for school clothes, supplies, and food. Let alone the utilities. Of course, the husband had no insurance policy for them to get assistance that way.

If K's Mom had not lived nearby and had room—she, her daughter, and their two dogs would have been part of the Invisible Population... more economic refugees.

An ex-coworker of mine contacted me last year, hoping against hope I could help him find work. At 63, he was laid off from his job. He had been divorced and his Ex got the house and the savings. So when he was laid off, he had no emergency backup plan. Then he got diagnosed with advanced cancer. He's in hospice now, paid for by a cousin he managed to contact. I cannot say he is lucky, because hospice means he is dying. But at least it isn't in his car or in some makeshift campsite somewhere.

Others are not so "lucky." Each has had a series of circumstances and decisions that funneled them into the status of "homeless" or as I prefer to call them "Economic Refugees"—if you have seen the encampments—you know my label is probably a better description of their status than simply "homeless." They are trying to regain citizenship in the low and middle class of people who have roofs over their heads.

I say they are "invisible," because of the number of people I see who step over and around them, preferring not to make eye contact, and pretending they are not there. And the number of people with homes, who make impassioned pleas to their city councils to "do something about the homeless," and cite their property values and the amount of taxes they pay, as if that entitles them to further humiliate these people by pushing them further into the purgatory of non-existence... elsewhere.

It is even more alarming to think about how easily these people slide out of our conscious minds. Veterans who served this country and now have nowhere to call home; families in crisis; elderly—the economic refugees are a cross section of the population at large. And those with homes do not realize how easily they, too, might someday fall through the cracks, and become part of the invisible population.