To call this day "cold" is a slight understatement. It didn't start snowing fast or heavy, and thankfully the high winds have gone away, but this was a frigid day. A bitter cold that cut right to the bone. Nothing I could do would make me warm.
I postponed my scheduled drive to Nogal fearing that the trailer wouldn't be quite as safe in these weather conditions. Yet by noon the sun appeared and melted the snow, then it became overcast, then the sun appeared again and we went back and forth with teasing, then threatening weather. But it remained in the 30's and I stayed frozen solid all day.It's very depressing when you can't get warm. The comfort of home is somewhere on another planet where the "worthy" people are. Just as I was ready to sit and sob heartbroken, someone sent an article about the homeless children across this nation living in vehicles, and my heart simply sank in despair for these poor kids.
More homeless kids now living in cars
By Scott Pelley
November 25, 2011 7:15 PM
(CBS News)
It's shocking to think that in this land of plenty, 17 million American children are living in poverty. That's nearly one in four.
For "60 Minutes" this Sunday, Scott Pelley went to Central Florida, where the homeless shelters have filled up, and a lot of children are living in cars or trucks.
A truck is the home of the Metzger family: Arielle, 15, and her brother Austin, 13. Their mother died when they were very young. Their dad, Tom, is a carpenter who's been looking for work since Florida's construction industry collapsed. When foreclosure took their house, he bought the truck with his last thousand dollars.
Living in their truck for the last five months has been "an adventure," Arielle says.
"Yeah, it's not really that much an embarrassment. I mean, it's only life. You do what you need to do, right?" Arielle asks.
The Metzgers blend in with more than 1,100 homeless students in the Seminole County schools. At Casselberry School, we met fifteen students who'd been living in cars.
"Well, I worried that someone would just break in and steal my mom's purse," said Jade Wiley.
Jade Wiley is eight years old. She spent three weeks living in her car.
"I thought I was going to be stuck in the car," Jade said, adding that "a nice lady named Beth," gave them money to get into a home.
Beth Davalos said she just delivered help provided by the community.
Beth Davalos runs programs for homeless kids in the Seminole schools. She helps find temporary shelter, but it's tough. Of all the homeless families in Florida, two thirds are living on the street.
"People are running out of resources. The unemployment runs out. Their savings run out, and before you know it, they find themselves living in their car because they ran out of all options," Davalos said.
The kids we met, like the Metzgers, clean up in gas stations or YMCAs, keep up appearances by day, and search for safety by night.
"Every time I see like a teenager or any other kid fighting with their parents or arguing with them, and like not doing what they 're told it really hurts me. Because they could be in my shoes. And of course I don't want them to be in my shoes. But they need to learn to appreciate what they have and who they have in their life. Because it may be the last day they might have it," Arielle Metzger said.
Arielle and her brother Austin spend their days in the city library. The say education is their way out. Arielle plans to be a lawyer.
The full story on homeless children will be Sunday night on "60 Minutes."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57331399/more-homeless-kids-now-living-in-cars/
Homelessness is simply painful. It strips away your identity, self worth, hope... it chips away at your heart, your soul, your very being.Why are we allowing so many human beings to be dragged through a living hell, especially older citizens and children?
What is Home?Alan Graham, President of Mobile Loaves and Fishes
What is home? What does it mean to be at home? What is it that homeless people do not have that renders them homeless? And how would the jet-setting global consumer, the postmodern nomad, recognize home if she ever found one? We offer eight characteristics of home, as outlined in Beyond Homelessness.
- First, home is a place of permanence. To be “at home” somewhere is more than simply having a place to stay.
- Second, a home is a dwelling place. A home is not just a place of permanence, for home is not the same as house.
- Third, home is a storied place. A house becomes a home when it is transformed by memory-shaped meaning into a place of identity, connectedness, order and care.
- Fourth, home is a safe resting place. In contrast to a war zone, a site of danger and fear, home is a refuge, an asylum of safety and security. Home is where one can be relaxed and at ease rather than tense and anxious.
- Fifth, home is a place of hospitality. At home, we take family in; ideally, we also welcome the stranger because we are at ease, without fear.
- Sixth, home is a place of embodied inhabitation. We not only shape a place according to our own home-making ways, but we are shaped by the places we inhabit. Kimberly Dovey observes: “We not only give a sense of identity to the place we call home, but we also draw our identity from the place.”
- Seventh, home is a place of orientation. From home our world is made meaningful. Away from home we become homesick.
- Eighth and last, home is a place of affiliation and belonging. Think of the resonances of home team, hometown, and homeland. Home is where we find our place and gain our identity.
- http://www.hhweekaustin.com/blog/blog/65-what-is-home
There has to be someone related to Robert & Sylve Huckins must have some means to reach them, if it be Michael Huckins, Dr.Kenneth Ogilvie ( Diana Huckins? Dominic Huckins? Malcolm Huckins? ) or Patricia Ogilvie-Huckins and get them to return ALL of the money they stole from us so that I can buy a home and get our lives back. I am begging anyone in this family for help.I don't believe I have EVER witnessed any none violent crime that can be as devastating as stealing someone's home. I am walking in Dorothy McKeevers footsteps, day by day, month by month, year by year.
Liam Griffin, I sat in your law office with two witnesses as you gave me your promise, your guarantee, that our money would be returned before harm came to us.
Patricia Ogilvie-Huckins you were present the day I signed contract with your son. You walked out of the kitchen with Sylve Huckins and your son introduced me to you. He told you that I was the British horse trainer he had told you about, the one he was going to build the home and barn for. Why didn't you say something? There may be a rational and reasonable explanation but I have spent over 3 years, homeless, not understanding it. I understand it even less knowing that though I was a total stranger, both Dorothy McKeever and Sally Canning you KNEW, and you knew what your son had done to them and others.
Dr. Kenneth Ogilvie, I contacted you and simply asked for a reference, not knowing that Robert Huckins was your cousin. Robert Huckins had just stolen over $30,000 from the domestic violence shelter, HEAL, yet everyone was trying to hide it. There was a history of stealing large amounts of money. $65,000 PLUS from Nancy Canning. $89,000 PLUS from Dorothy McKeever, $45,000 from Francis McKinney. The list just goes on and on and on.
Because of Robert Huckins I ended up paying $140,000 to be homeless.. sat in the cold, emotionally, physically and financially broke. In the middle of a recession, with no way to recover the stolen funds.
Today Robert Huckins has his own home...
He also has OUR home.....
He also has a lot of people's money...
And his freedom.
Women are not banks or loan institutions. Women should not be the source of a retirement fund for people who don't want to do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Holding women hostage while playing with the judicial system, a horrendous game of cat and mouse extending YEARS, with the victims whose very homes, families and stability are in jeopardy is cruelty, as cruel as a physical beating. It is financial and emotional RAPE. Homelessness is not justice. It is a slow, painful death.
Please, I beg with everything I have within me, please convince Robert Huckins to stop this torture and return the building fund he stole from us so we too, can have a home.
Relevant pages:
http://roberthuckinsvictim.
http://roberthuckinsvictim.
I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all. ~ Leo Rosten
