WP: Storage Unit As Shelter Not Unique, Workers Say

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8714-2004Nov23.html

In 20 years working in commercial storage, years when she has also had to work nights waitressing at the Golden Corral to help support her children, Robin Lawrence has seen lots of people living in storage sheds.

"Sometimes they can fix them up really nice," said Lawrence, who works at Economy Storage in Waldorf. They might add insulation, carpet on the floor, a bed, a rack for their clothes, a television, a hot plate, maybe even a little grill out back. "It's just like a little efficiency, but without running water."

The arrest of a 33-year-old woman last week for allegedly locking her 4- and 5-year-old daughters in a commercial storage shed for three nights has exposed a hidden corner of life. Yesterday, Reuben B. Collins, an attorney for Felicia M. Dorsey, cautioned reporters not to judge too harshly until all the facts emerge.

"A mother's love for her children may not be rationally understood under every circumstance, especially as she and others struggle to survive," Collins said, declining to elaborate on what he called the "extraordinary circumstances" of his client's life.

[madmax]

1. This is so sad.

The lengths some people have to go to just to survive.

Anyone remember Shante Fernandez? Fairly high profile case of a Mom who locked her daughter in the trunk of the car every night while she worked at a mall department store. A high priced lawyer took her case pro bono. She got offers of jobs, sitters, an apartment.

[Joy Anne]

5. in New Jersey?

maybe 10 years ago? Of course, I suppose women get arrested for this fairly often. I don't remember anybody rushing to the aid of the woman I remember.

[madmax]

9. Yes, in NJ

She was working at Fortunoff in Woodbridge Center.

[bemildred]

2. Cargo containers can work great too. nt

[alfredo]

3. They are pretty cozy. I've seen some good ones inside old tobacco

ware houses.

While in Ethiopia I saw people living in storage sheds. They got along OK there because it didn't get to cold or hot there on that mountain.

[tabasco]

4. Various levels of homelessness.

We should be ashamed as a Nation that we allow so many children to live in poverty. How long will it be before we rise up and end our serfdom?

[yardwork]

7. This is happening to millions while other Americans buy yachts

There's another story here about how the market for $10 million houses is booming, along with luxury cars, yachts, summer houses, etc.

It's just like the 19th century, when most people were poor and the robber barons controlled all the money. They weren't particularly "moral," either.

[pop goes the weasel]

12. as long as

we don't give a fuck about adults, children will continue to be poor. The major cause of poor children is poor adults. Help the parents, and the children will prosper.

Really, we have got to stop this "what about the children" mentality. Children grow up. Poor children grow up to be poor adults who have more poor children. Break the cycle by helping adults whether they have children or not.

No one should be sleeping exposed to the elements unless they are purposely out camping, no one should have to sleep in a storage shed and risk being arrested for it, no one should have to live in a car. No one. No child. No adult.

[tabasco]

13. Go pop your weasel.

I'll have whatever mentality I prefer.

[pop goes the weasel]

15. way to not pay any attention

to what I said.

Look, reformers in this country use children as a back-door entry into what they really want to do, whether that's the best approach or not. When labor laws first began to get on the books in the 19th century, they were directed at women and children, but not at men. Did it help? No, not really. It allowed a lot of people to feel good about themselves that they had voted for those laws, had voted for the politicians who voted for those laws, but it didn't really change anything. Desperately poor parents still needed the income their children brought in, and still sent them to work in the dangerous industries they had been working in before, only now they lied about their age. Communities hired truant officers to inspect factories for under-aged children at work, but those officers were susceptible to bribery and often easily put off by the false documents the companies held "verifying" the children's ages. So, what helped? Improving the wages and working conditions for the main earner in the family finally broke the tradition of child labor.

So, now we have the problem of homelessness. Crying "what about the children" gets public sympathy, but it doesn't address the root of the problem very well. Except in a few abusive cases, children who are homeless are homeless because their parents are homeless. If all we care about is getting children off the streets, then the Republican "solution" of more orphanges is what we are going to get. If what we really care about is solving the homelessness crisis, then let's address the problem of homeless adults.

[alittlelark]

6. That's just too sad.

Living in Los Altos I am sheltered from many 'in your face' realities. But then, all I have to do is drive 20 or so miles to San Jose or San Francisco,

The effect stories like this have on me is probably related to the reason I give $$$ to most homeless that ask.

What's scary is that it will only get worse.

[AmandaRuth]

8. this makes me crazy.

It may have been a choice of childcare or rent for this woman, as it has been for many single mothers I have known thru the years. And the good Christian moral repigs think giving money via block grants for childcare is (snarl sneer) welfare that must be abolished. It's like they are not even people to them. '

[AuntieM1957]

10. Let's All Go to Washington for the Enthronement

I got an invitation to go to DC in January -

This makes me want to have a whole new Mother's March -

if enough of us went - do you think the press might actually cover it?

talk about morality & values - how can they sleep at night knowing (surely they know) that children are sleeping cold and hungry all over this once great country?

[Stinky The Clown]

11. This woman was turned away by the local county shelter

I have been following this story on the local news. Very sad.

But, tonight, the news reported that the mother speent the last two nights at her mother's house while the two little girls stayed at the storage locker.

I'm still not sure what's up.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

14. Waiting lists for shelters are a huge problem

In Fairfax County, across the Potomac from where this happened and one of the wealthiest in the nation, there is a list 60 families long to enter one of the shelters designated for families. (I volunteered at one for several years.) And that doesn't count all the folks who are functionally homeless: They double and triple up in tiny apartments, until there's a feud or a landlord finds out, at which point they move on to someone else's couch. Meanwhile, the children don't get to school half the time because they lack the proper records, in violation of federal law. These same kids tend to drop out early, thus perpetuating the cycle.