Chicken or the Egg - When it Comes to Homelessness

We know from the National Center on Family Homelessness that mothers experiencing homelessness struggle with mental health issues.

• They have three times the rate of PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) (36%) and twice the rate of drug and alcohol dependence (41%).
  
• About 50% of mothers have experienced a major depressive episode since becoming homeless.
  

We recently saw the reverse, where depression in a mother living near poverty level contributed to her family becoming homeless.

Paulette and her 3 children entered our transitional housing on October 15, 2009. Paulette’s 4 year old daughter passed away in January 2009 after having an asthma attack. Paulette was depressed and unable to return to work at the same daycare center her daughter had attended prior to passing. Paulette had no savings and very little support from her children’s father. Paulette lost her job and was unable to pay rent which meant she had to move in with her father in his one bedroom apartment with her other two children. Her goals are to obtain employment and work towards eliminating some old debt. Paulette stated Community LINC will be the start she needs to get her life back on track. Her main focus is housing and her mental health.

Her family coach calls depression "the invisible sickness." She sees it in fathers who spiral into depression when they aren’t able to provide for their families. We see it in most mothers.

But, we also see people overcome the impact of depression.

Caroline, a single mother of a little girl, came to Community LINC after a long stint of substance abuse, homelessness, and chaos including depression. While in our program, she maintained her hard won sobriety, became gainfully employed, retired a significant amount of debt and began work toward an undergraduate degree. She more than doubled her wages and no longer relies on public assistance from food stamps. Today, Caroline and her daughter live in a quaint three-bedroom home.

Our mental health therapist works with all of our adults on all of their issues. She counts herself successful when she only hears from a graduate family occasionally after they leave the program. If she hears from them constantly, she feels they haven’t achieved the independence that is our goal.

Happily, she doesn’t hear from Caroline very often. But, this week, Caroline came by to take her out to the construction site for her Habitat for Humanity home. In her lifetime, she’ll have gone from homeless to homeownership.

- Laura Gray