While I was doing StreetWatch outreach at a homeless tent city this week, I got phone calls about two homeless families — a single dad with a 7-year old and a single mom with a 5-year old — who had nowhere to go. Shelters were full. They always are. They were out of options. I had no answers. I prayed on the phone with the friend who’d called on their behalf, that God would make a way where’s there no way, and the homeless men in the circle around me listened quietly. I starting crying during the prayer and I didn’t stop until after the phone call ended. I couldn’t stop thinking about the newly-evicted mom who was going to get her child from school, and not have anywhere to go from there. No home. Homeless. Not even a shelter to stay in. How frightening for a child! How terrifying for a mom!
Dorothy Gordon and one of her children at the downtown library; Image source: News-Record.com; Image credit: Nelson Kepley
It didn’t even occur to me at the time (although I knew it already) that there are moms and dads with kids who are actually in the shelter, but who still have nowhere to go all day long. You can’t stay at the shelter during the day, even if you have nowhere to go and no way to get there. Those are the rules. Here’s one mom’s story:
Maybe you remember this image.
A woman pushing a stroller and holding the tiniest of umbrellas, her three small children in tow as the rain pelted them.
That picture ran in the News & Record two weeks ago, and at the time, it seemed mundane enough. Just a family caught in a downpour.
A reader who recognized them informed us otherwise.
Dorothy Gordon and her kids weren’t trying to get home. They were already there.
On the streets.
>> View photo and story at News-Record.com
Update, 6/4/2012: Hopeful news: I got a call from a friend about The Nurturing Center, a new child care program for homeless children. They have contacted Dorothy Gordon to see if they can help. 
It’s really surprising with the advocacy of “100 Homes” in thousands of communities, some of these same communities are ignoring this problem. While I’m all for improving availability to the most chronic cases, I have issue when grants are provided to service providers seeming to create additional infrastructure…requiring more funding in house than for the unhoused.
Keep it up, Michelle. Tons of us believe in what you’re doing.
Yes, this is true. Completely true.
Although I’m not in Greensboro, its true just about everywhere, most of us are on the streets during the day.. and half of us on the streets at night.
Even if the shelters aren’t full (which they always are) they aren’t safe and don’t offer any way out of the shelter, besides when they give you the boot at six am.
Sorry for the delay in responding!
@John: We got a big chunk of funding in 2007 for permanent supportive housing for individuals and another round of funding after that for families, but those vouchers were quickly filled, of course. Our system is now focused toward rapid re-housing, but the money isn’t there to house everyone. It’s very frustrating, but I’m glad that we were able to get a good number of people housed with the funding we’ve received so far.
@THG: All of the shelters here at the same way — you have to leave early in the morning and you can’t come back until night. Even the winter shelters follow that rule. But we do have a day center now. It’s open 8am-3pm Monday through Friday. It’s not meant to be a “hang-out” kind of place, but people can shower and do laundry and get other services, and it lessens the amount of time that people have to just be on the street. Although it was designed for individuals, I’ve seen families with kids there. And some good news: I got a call from a friend about The Nurturing Center, a new child care program for homeless children. They have contacted Dorothy Gordon to see if they can help.
@michelle that’s great!
Where I currently “live” in Tennessee there is a day shelter with similar offerings. Its a great life line to people like me, a shower makes a huge difference!
Supportive housing I find to be most lacking, there is an extensive homeless population here composed of primarily disabled individuals, who for lack of better terms are forgotten.
I’m glad to see a community take such Inititave, it’s definitely needed!