Before Ed, 11, became homeless, he had never imagined that children could end up on the street. The night his family slept in a car was the worst night of his life.
Things really start to go wrong when Ed’s dad beats his mother, Edith, badly. When his dad is put in prison they have to survive on his mother’s salary and it’s not enough to cover food and rent.
“Pack your stuff,” says his mother one day. “We have to move out.”
“Where are we going?” asks Ed, his little brother Leonard and his big sister Guadalupe. Their mother is silent for a moment.
Finally she admits, “I don’t know.”
Keep the mask up
The family gets help to put their furniture and other bits and pieces in storage. They pack only the bare essentials in a few bags they lug around when they start moving from friend to friend. Most people they know are already short of space. They can never stay in the same place for very many nights. Soon the summer vacation will be over and Ed is very worried about what will happen when he goes back to school. Of course, his mum is searching for a new, cheaper apartment but it seems impossible to find one. All landlords demand the first and last months’ rent in advance. That’s thousands of dollars and his mum never has that kind of money to spare. She works at a hamburger place and doesn’t earn much. All her pay goes to food, clothes, and bus fares.After six months the family are all desperate. They often sleep on someone’s living room floor with all their stuff crammed into bags. It’s a nightmare in the mornings when everyone’s trying to find clean clothes at once. And it’s even harder to figure out how to get to school from a place you’ve never been before.
Ed is always tired and worried. He often gets headaches and stomach pains. He has neither the time nor the peace and quiet to do homework, since they have to move every other day. Ed doesn’t tell his classmates or his teacher that he’s homeless now. They might start teasing him and looking down on him. He fights hard to make sure nobody notices that something is wrong, but sometimes it feels almost impossible to keep up appearances.
Dad doesn’t know
The children’s dad still doesn’t know what has happened. He writes to them from jail and asks when they’re coming to see him. When he was in prison before, their mother took them to visit, but now she doesn’t want to. She says they have neither the time nor the money. Ed realizes she has decided to leave their dad for good. But how will they manage on their own?
In the end, they have nowhere to go. Ed’s mother calls everyone she knows and a friend finally says they can sleep in his van. They spread blankets on the floor and crawl into the cramped space in the back. That night, Ed is terrified and can’t sleep. The noises outside are scary but the thoughts racing through his mind are worse. Is this how they’re going to live the rest of their lives?
The next day, his mother has had enough. She has heard about a church shelter that helps homeless families, but it’s in a different area, far away from the children’s schools. Now Ed and his brother and sister will have to change schools and she’ll have to find a new job.
Lawyer as a teacher
Now they’ve been living in a little room at the church shelter for six months. They have two bunk beds and a wardrobe they squeeze all their stuff into. Once a week, Ed’s tutor from School on Wheels comes by. In the daytime, she’s a divorce lawyer, but this job is more fun, she tells Ed. He likes Jessica because she’s kind and good at explaining difficult maths problems in a way that makes them seem easy. Usually, they go to the library to study. It’s nice to get away from the shelter for a while.
“The worst thing about the shelter is all the rules. It’s hard for kids not to have any freedom,” says Ed to Jessica. “We have to go to church all the time, or they’ll throw us out. Our room is tiny and it’s hard to keep track of our stuff and even harder to stay friends. The great thing is to know where you’re going to sleep the next night. To not be on the street, sleeping in cars or on people’s floors.”
Text: Carmilla Floyd
Photo: Kim Naylor
Ed’s dream house
“A greenhouse with a pool, a library and a skatepark.My dream is to have my own room – I’ve never had that. I’d put posters up on the walls, enjoy the peace and quiet and take care of myself.”
