WALTHAM - The hotel’s main rooms are nearly all occupied by 90 homeless families with children placed here by the state, both the working poor and the unemployed. The state pays $80 a night per room because traditional emergency shelters cannot handle the surge of families who have become homeless in the past few years....
This during an alleged economic recovery my paper has been telling me about. F***ing liars!
Still, there are some perks to living in the comfortable hotel, with its thick carpeting, cozy rooms and televisions in every room....
Yeah, and NEWSPAPER ELITISM and INSULTS isn't one of 'em! Maybe the intrepid Globe reporter wouldn't mind living in one for the rest of her life.
Let's check out a couple rooms:
In Room 213, Rashita Clark wakes before the sun rises high enough to glint off the frost-glazed cars, an early riser from 13 years working for Delta Air Lines. She had just bought a townhouse in Georgia when the airline, which had filed for bankruptcy in 2005, cut her pay by 26 percent.
Fearing more pay cuts, or worse, she took a severance package and got a job teaching business education to high school students. She worked two other jobs to get by. But when the teaching job ended last summer, Clark, 38, moved back to Boston, where she grew up. She figured she would take any job she could find.
But even jobs at corner stores and gas stations were hard to come by.
Related: No Appetite For the Boston Globe
Who likes eating shit?
Managers told her that her bachelor’s degree from Suffolk University and two master’s degrees overqualified her.
All that loan debt for nothing.
In July, with no money and no home, she took her two kids to the Malden office of the Department of Transitional Assistance. They were sent to the Home Suites Inn.
“I’m a determined person,’’ said Clark, who grew up on Roxbury’s Elm Hill Avenue and graduated from Boston Latin Academy, one of the city’s elite exam schools. “I didn’t plan on being in this situation but I don’t want to stay in this situation. I want to be out of here, where I can take care of my family and give them the things that they need so that they can be productive people in society.’’
She and her daughter, Kennedy, 6, each sleep in one of the hotel beds. Marlon, 11, lately prefers the folding cot that fills the gap between his mother and sister, beneath a blue patchwork quilt from his great uncle, who lives in Mattapan. Kennedy drifts off each night holding her stuffed ladybug.
Their hotel room looks like a thousand others, striped tan wallpaper and two colorless prints of poplar trees. But this room is overflowing with the possessions of a family that has been here a long time: juice boxes, instant oatmeal, a folding chair, bags of laundry, toys, schoolbooks, paper plates, and plastic forks. Still, seven months after moving into the hotel, Clark has not unpacked everything. She wants to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
She is also fiercely vigilant about not getting comfortable here, or succumbing to the despair that has settled heavily over the hotel’s guests. Everyone knows of families that have lived here a year or longer.
Clark uses the television, turned up loud, to block out the sounds of her neighbors. “You hear everything - babies screaming, people yelling, things that I don’t think are appropriate for you to hear,’’ she says.
Think of it as a perk.
Every night, she falls asleep to the sounds of “Law & Order,’’ or a movie on TBS, setting the timer so the TV will switch off. She leaves the television on during the day, creating a sound barrier between her room and the rest of the hotel. This week, hope arrives in the form of an e-mail from a friend whose cousin works at a Cambridge church looking to hire a part-time office manager. “It’s funny when people go, ‘I know the job is beneath you,’ ’’ Clark says. “Wait a minute, I have no job. How can it be beneath me?’’
The church asks her to come in for an interview, but she has already decided that she won’t tell her kids. If she isn’t hired, she doesn’t want to disappoint them. She has become an expert at managing expectations.
“As parents, the only thing to do is try to be positive,’’ she says. “But it’s kind of hard to tell your kids, ‘Oh, stay positive,’ and then we’re struggling to eat and get to school and get to work, can’t find a job.’’
At night, once her kids fall asleep, she works on homework for her online psychology course through the University of Phoenix, for her third master’s degree.
WTF?
And she thinks about her kids. Marlon has grown tall and lanky, and in sixth grade, he already wears a men’s size 9 shoe. Normally, his mother would not let him play on two basketball teams, one at his middle school and one at the Waltham Boys & Girls Club.
But now, she makes an exception. All the practices and games, Clark calculates, will keep him out of the hotel.
For couple, troubles pile up
Clark’s neighbor, Nicole Sheck and her family, moved into Home Suites after they had to leave their Waltham apartment and could not find another place they could afford on her waitressing wages. She and Peter Braun, her boyfriend, would like to stay near Waltham. Sheck’s oldest daughter is in second grade, and the two younger girls go to preschool programs in Watertown.
“I’ve got to be able to get to work,’’ Sheck says. “I can’t not have a job.’’
They couldn’t afford to keep their car but they’re planning to get another with their tax refund. They trek to the grocery store, often by bus, every other day to restock the tiny refrigerator in their hotel room.
Lately, she and Braun, 29, have been spending a lot of time at medical appointments with their 15-month-old daughter, Nevaeh. The toddler with wisps of blond hair was born with a cleft palate and has already undergone two surgeries.
Now a specialist suspects Nevaeh - her name is “heaven’’ spelled backward - has Stickler syndrome, a progressive genetic disorder that can cause serious problems with vision and hearing. Nevaeh’s jaw hasn’t grown since she was born, crowding her tongue.
She has trouble swallowing, and for a while, doctors prescribed a gluten-free diet, which burned through the family’s food stamps. It didn’t help. The doctors tell Sheck and Braun that she will need more surgery to expand her jaw with a bone graft.
The recovery will be painful. They hope they can postpone the operation until they have their own apartment....
To see who got the apartment go here
FLASHBACKS:
"A room to call home; State sheltering a record number of struggling families in motels" by Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff | June 24, 2009
More homeless families are being lodged in hotels than ever.
And that is in LIBERAL, COMPASSIONATE, SMUG and SELF-RIGHTEOUS MASSACHUSETTS that just rammed tax increases up your....
Don't let them fool you, readers.
Officials blame the increase on rising unemployment and a flood of foreclosures.
But EVERYTHING is GETTING BETTER (wait for the next article).
The state says it provides families with services similar to those offered at shelters, including transportation for children to their original school districts, and referrals to community resources for food and clothing.
Yeah, right, the LOOTING TRANSFER OPERATION known as STATE GOVERNMENT is "helping" us.
“We are obligated to put them in a place where they can have at least a roof over their head,’’ said Bob Pulster, executive director of the Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness, created by Governor Deval Patrick in 2007 to end homelessness by 2013. “A motel may be the best we can do right now.’’
But advocates for the homeless worry that motel families are left largely on their own, without the in-house support of shelters equipped with kitchens, living rooms, and play areas.
Nancy Paladino, director of the family team for Boston Health Care for the Homeless, said the nonprofit agency, which helps families obtain medical care, has been overwhelmed by the need for assistance.
“I don’t see a solution or an end in sight,’’ said Paladino. “It’s really challenging if you have kids with special eating needs, or a parent with diabetes. It is tough to eat healthy.’’
**********
While the state has placed families in motels since 2007, when the 2,000 rooms in homeless shelters reached capacity, the temporary solution has become a long-term problem....
Government all over!
As a result, budget motels like the Gateway Inn have essentially become homeless shelters, with nearly all rooms occupied by state-paid guests. Massachusetts is one of the few states that mandate shelter for homeless families.
Sort of HIDES the PROBLEM real good, doesn't it?
Why not PUT 'EM in a FORECLOSED HOME (or let those people stay)!
And wait until you see what our COMPASSIONATE LOOTERS LEGISLATED!
Last week, the Legislature voted to tighten family eligibility requirements for emergency shelter, something that could leave hundreds scrambling for a place to live....
But THEY don't have to WORRY about a TAXPAYER-FUNDED ROOF over THEIR HEAD -- if it ain't paid for by lobbyist loot!!!!
Some question whether motels are an efficient use of tax dollars. A monthlong stay costs an average of $2,550 - similar to rent in some upscale Boston high-rises.
Oh, I KNOW IT IS NOT! This is MASSACHUSETTS after all!!!!
“It’s an extraordinary waste of money when we know the best way to house people is in permanent housing,’’ said Joe Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, which works to promote affordable housing and economic development.
An AMERICAN SCANDAL, folks!
Related: Who Remembers Timothy Finch?
But housing options remain limited.
“The only reason they are in the motels is because shelter space is full,’’ said Robyn Frost, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. “We should not take down the safety net until every single person is housed.’’
Aren't you ASHAMED, Bay Staters, when we are GIVING NEARLY $1 BILLION to Hollywood alone in TAX SUBSIDIES?!!!
The state hopes to reduce the ranks of motel families over the next six months by offering short-term housing subsidies.... Officials also anticipate receiving $44.5 million in federal stimulus money to help communities prevent homelessness....
Well, WHERE IS IT? STOLEN? Why isn't there more?
--more--"
"Homeless use of motels still on rise" by Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff | September 16, 2009
The number of homeless families living in motels funded by the state now tops more than 1,000, a dramatic 37 percent increase since June 1, a top official for the state Department of Housing and Community Development said yesterday.
Tina Brooks, undersecretary of the department, said 1,010 families - including more than 1,400 children - are now living in motels, at a monthly cost of about $2.8 million for taxpayers....
That is a DROP in the BUCKET compared to the HUNDREDS of MILLIONS profitable Hollywood gets!
The recession, high unemployment, and continuing foreclosure crisis are forcing more families to seek help. The state has been placing families in motels since 2007, when the 2,000 rooms in the homeless shelter system reached capacity.
Robyn Frost, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, said her office is receiving a flood of calls for help from desperate families seeking shelter and often her only option is to recommend they live in motels funded by the state. Frost said it’s not ideal because motels aren’t equipped to take care of families long-term....
She had to tell a mother that she couldn’t qualify for shelter because she owns a car. She’ll likely be sleeping in the vehicle with her teenage daughter, Frost said....
During the WINTER?
This is COMPASSIONATE, "liberal" Massachusetts?!!!!
In an effort to quickly move families out of state-funded shelters, the housing department started an emergency program in late July to provide rental assistance to families who need help for up to 12 months. Brooks said 352 families received help in the program’s first month, at a cost of $850,000. She said this is a better use of money than putting them in shelters, where families live an average of eight months at a cost of $24,000 per family.
The state also is working with property management companies to find vacant units in private developments to house homeless families and is working with community agencies to expand their involvement to help the homeless.
Yeah, the state is all over the problem. Pffft!
The state is looking forward to $44.5 million in federal stimulus funds, to be made available next month, to help the homeless....
That is NOT STIMULUS!!!
I'm not opposed to the idea; however, STIMULUS leaves a GOING CONCERN that CONTINUES to SELL PRODUCTS and CREATE JOBS! This DOES NONE of that!!!!
--more--"
Yeah, somehow EVERYTHING HAS GOTTEN MUCH WORSE the LAST THREE YEARS -- even as the Massachusetts economy outperformed that nation (or not).
