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| Timothy Harris, Executive Director |
Last week one of our vendors told me a story I’ve heard a hundred times. He’s been working his ass off. Over December, when the tips were good, he made almost $4,000. He saved most of it. Cash. Sitting in an envelope. On a more typical month, he’ll make about half that.
This guy’s clean and sober, but there have been times when he wasn’t. Mistakes were made. He had a professional job once. He can’t really do that anymore. His past comes dragging along behind him.
What this guy needs most in the world is an apartment for himself and his disabled wife. They lived in their car for awhile, but when he started selling Real Change about a year ago, they got themselves into a crappy little motel room out on Aurora for $300 a week. They’ve been there ever since.
“Being poor is expensive,” he told me. Yeah. It is. Three hundred bucks a week for a lousy 120 square feet. No kitchen means paying more for food. And trouble is never too far away.
When the rental vacancies get down below 4 percent, guys like him don’t stand a chance. If you have an eviction in your past, a criminal record, or bad credit, you’re screwed.
So business is booming in the poverty hotel biz.
To qualify for the long housing wait lists, he and his wife would need to move back into the car. They can’t face that. They’re looking for options. Where are the breaks? That’s not a rhetorical question. I’m asking. |
