Misconceptions about Homelessness: The government or charitable organizations will help them if they only ask.

MYTH: The government or charitable organizations will help them if they only ask.

FACT: If you do not have a home address you are not eligible for ANY government help.

I have Autism, therefor I am not eligible for medical/health insurance, either government or private, and this includes free clinics and volunteer clinics with sliding scales… even if I did not have Autism, they all REQUIRE a home mailing address and it CAN NOT be a P.O.Box.

I do not have a home address or P.O.Box, though P.O.Boxes are not accepted anyways, therefor I am not eligible for: TANF, Welfare, SSI, WIC, FoodStamps, or ANY other government program.

I am a single woman, but because I am a Mormon I am also I am not pregnant, not an unwed mother, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I don’t use drugs and therefor I am not eligible for any of the homeless shelters in the state of Maine, because they are all run as rehab facilities for drunks and drug addicts.

My own church told me I was not eligible for help, because they said that after checking my records I had not paid enough tithing over the course of my having paid a 30% tithe to them for 27 years and therefor they could not waste valuable funds to help someone like me who did not give back enough to the church.

The only way any local church would help me was if I changed my religion from Mormonism to whatever religion they were.

Because I am homeless and thus have no utility bills (water, electric, or cable TV) I am not eligible for meals at local soup kitchens or food from local food panties.

I have been homeless for over 5 years at the time of my writing this and to date, I have yet to receive financial, material, emotional, or spiritual help from any one, government, charity, church, family, or friend. I have asked. I did ask. I have now stopped asking. My income since the flood in 2006, is $2,000 per year, (yes, I’m living on $100 – $150 per month) I make that by selling photography on Zazzle.com and I continue to look for a job, but 5 years and 400+ job applications later, I am still being told “We don’t hire people with Autism”. Life in a house is no longer a goal I strive for. I have accepted the fact that a person with Autism is unloved, unwanted, and will never be given a chance to prove themselves, because narrow minded discrimination against people with Autism is so great that no business owner will give them a chance to even try. Until I can find a job I have nothing to hope for but continued homelessness.

My family joined the ranks of what I am told are now called “The Working Homeless” on May 9, 2006. For us it was a flood, not a foreclosure that did it. The flood left my dad in a coma for 2 months and in rehab for 6 months, he returned “home” to his car 8 months after the flood disabled, unable to work, and barely able to survive on disability checks. My mom ran off with another man. My 3 teenaged brothers got shipped off to relatives. I have Autism and was left as the only one “able” to work, yet no one will hire someone with Autism and in spite of the “EVERYONE” being required to have health insurance, I am not eligible for medical insurance or disability, due to the fact I have Autism. Multi-million dollars in medical bills due to the $30,000 a day cost of keeping my dad on life support while in the coma, resulted in my dad loosing his grandparent’s’ farm WHILE he was still in the coma in the hospital, and no hope in sight of ever having a way to live in a house again.

This is how I came to live in a motorhome.

I see people talk of RV vacations and I’ve see some folks talk bad at folks who full time out of nessesacty. I ask those folks: what if it was you? You don’t know what tomorrow holds. We had everything we wanted, everything we needed, and than in the space of under 3 minutes it all vanished under a tidal wave. Everything we owned: gone without warning in the blink of an eye. We didn’t plan a fulltimer lifestyle. It was thrown on us. we didn’t have a choice. We boondock, not by choice, but because we have too. If we could afford to stay in RV Parks we could afford to stay in an apartment.

I see a lot of folks here blaming Pres O. But in 2006 when it happened to us, no one had ever heard of him. Back than, we were far from alone – yes, there are a lot of homeless out there, but ask them HOW LONG they’ve been homeless – most of the homeless I’ve met so far, lost their homes in the 1990s and earlier.

It’s not a recent thing this surge of homeless living in RVs…it’s just that it’s been going on so long now, that the numbers are starting to add up, because nothing has been done to get housing prices down or higher paying jobs available…all the way back before Pres. O, and B. all the way back to Clinton!

Now granted I have Autism and I don’t understand how Pres jobs work and all, but when I’m out there looking for a job, it’s not the Pres who is standing there telling me they can’t hire some one with Autism, it’s the business owners. It’s not the Pres telling my dad he can’t get a loan to rebuild his house because he’s disabled: it’s the bank owners. Maybe the Pres is at fault too, but he’s not the one saying “No” to use folks trying to get jobs.

My income since the flood in 2006, is $2,000 per year, (yes, I’m living on $100 – $150 per month) I make that by selling photography on Zazzle.com and I continue to look for a job, but 5 years and 400+ job applications later, I am still being told “We don’t hire people with Autism”.

As for is it everywhere? In the Greater Portland Area of Maine (5 towns including Portland), there are estimated to be 32,000 homeless living on the streets, in their cars/trucks, or in motorhomes, and yet Portland itself, Maine’s largest city, has a population of 64,000 people. Those aren’t very good odds, when you consider the second largest toen in the area has 20,000 and the third has 12,000.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat