Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Support Systems

I know it's been a while! I've been so busy trying to get done with finals and I finished this last Monday! Hallelujah!!

And here I am blogging again at work. :)
However I just met one of my new clients and it was one of the hardest meetings I've ever had with a client.

I had to hold back the tears. I wanted to so desperately give her a hug and tell her everything would be okay but that can't be my role. I have to save that role for her mother or sister. I am her advocate, not her friend.

CD was living in her own apartment making about $4,000 a month working at the same job for the past 11 years. Which by NYC standards is not a lot but you can definitely make it work. She lost her job this last April and hasn't been able to get back on her feet. She was staying with her mother up until recently but her mother's apartment is very small and just couldn't fit CD and her 5 kids. People were sleeping on the floor and it was not a good long term solution. Without having other family members with the means to support her, her only option was to enter the homeless system.

What really struck me was that this could be someone I know. We sat here and spoke just as though we were two people that meet walking down the street. I don't typically have those types of conversations with my clients. With most of my clients there is too much of a cultural gap for us to have that type of connection.

What also touched me was that she reminded me of someone I would meet at home in Indiana. She had such a nice demeanor and didn't have that rough, aggressive approach. She was just like a nice, approachable Hoosier. She actually reminded me of someone I worked with in Bloomington.

It was so hard to sit here and see a mother trying to hide her tears from her son as she tells me she about how she's gone from having everything to nothing in just a few months. And now she's at the hands of a very unpleasant woman at the Dept of Homeless Services (DHS) to determine whether or not she will be allowed to stay in the shelter system. Every family that goes to DHS and states they are homeless is investigated, and a case worker in the department gets the ultimate say...and it sounds at though CD happened to get a case manager that just doesn't care.

I've really been struggling a lot lately with my financial situation. I feel overwhelmed every time I think about the cost of living out here, my income and the student loans I'm racking up. I can't even begin to describe how much I worry about this.

But I feel like God needed me to meet CD today. I needed to be reminded I am ok. I have an apartment. I have the financial means to survive. And most importantly if everything fell apart and I had no money, I know have numerous family members and freinds I could turn to in a heartbeat. I would never be homeless. Not because I would never be financially broken, because anybody could, but I have the support system that would never allow me to be homeless.

As Americans, including myself, we always think that it's finances that cause homelessness, and yes it is a part, but another large part of homelessness is not having a strong support system either. Not having good relationships with family. Having family but having family that's so financially stapped and strained they can't support one more person.

I am blessed. I am so blessed. Not because of my financial status, since that can always be taken from me, but from what I will never lose - my friends and family. I realized today I have much more security than I thought.

God gave me a new perspective today.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Aww Sar! That is something I realized from my Community clinicals that I just finished up. It is so sad, but how awesome to get a new perspective. I will see you in a few days!! :)

Love you