The Working Homeless
Massachusetts is the only state that guarantees families a "right to shelter," but the combination of high rents and low wages are sending more families to the streets each year.
KELLY KASULIS
TWO YEARS AGO, I found a court document detailing a dispute between the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and Melvin Hernandez, a father living in a Shrewsbury emergency assistance shelter. With the help of a legal advocate, Hernandez successfully won the case and was able to stay there.
I wrote a story then, but it never left me. I returned to it 18 months later and checked in with Hernandez, who is still struggling to find permanent, affordable housing.
But it’s not just about him. There are thousands of people like him. I’ve tracked down and reached out to several other families living in shelters. After talking to them about their lives and their reasons for homelessness, it became clear that their stories aren't simple. Likewise, none of them fits the bill for the “welfare queen” stereotype that still pervades the American psyche today in conversations about poverty and government assistance. Forty years ago, President Reagan coined the term and, 40 years later, these families are still affected by its stigma.
Massachusetts is the only state to establish a “right to shelter” for homeless families, but that right comes with income cutoffs and a highly contested standard that families must first stay in a place "not meant for human habitation" before entering shelter. Though the state provides other housing stabilization programs, the DHCD’s emergency assistance shelters serve families who have nowhere else to go. And the demand for this type of assistance is far greater than the supply – 5,146 families entered EA shelter in state fiscal year 2015, but twice as many people applied.
Nevertheless, this is a story that's about all of us. We pass people on the streets every day without knowing what goes on in their daily lives, what worries are on their mind and where they go to sleep at night.
The number of families that entered EA shelter in SFY'15 (state fiscal year 2015).
I am a journalist and graphic designer living in Boston. This piece will serve as my graduating honors project at Northeastern University, edited and directed by Carlene Hempel, a professor of journalism.
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Kelly Kasulis
THE WORKING HOMELESS
Melvin and Markesha Hernandez purchased TVs on Black Friday in 2014, later flipping them for profit. Photo taken by Aram Boghosian.
Martinez sitting between her two children, age 14 and 9, with a basketball in her lap. Martinez's daughter and her friend (far left) returned with a frozen yogurt to share.
Before the game starts, Martinez shows her son how to shoot a basket.
While sick with a fever, Martinez's 9-year-old son plays video games from bed in their Jamaica Plain shelter. Martinez usually sleeps in the adjacent bed while her teenage daughter sleeps in a separate room.
"It's kind of cute because he wakes up every morning and says, 'Good morning, Mommy,'" Martinez said. "And I'll say, 'Hey buddy, how ya doing? You gonna get up today?'"
Martinez (left) sitting at the kitchen table of her home, a Jamaica Plain shelter. On the floor, her EMT uniform is packed up in a box (right) and ready to ship back to her former work place.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Families terminated from the system are able to appeal, but a public records request from the DHCD shows that 71.9 percent of all termination appeals filed were unsuccessful. These data cover termination appeals from Jan. 1, 2013 to Feb. 24, 2016.
Taylor standing on the street, not too far from the shelter she's been living in since May 2015.
"I love Boston. This is my city. And I really wish I could stay working here – I really do."
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Text from Jasmin Taylor