Eviction Experience

I got a taste of what it feels like to be evicted from your house and be homeless as a lower middle-class one parent family last night. It was an experience that left me confused, frustrated, sad, and broken.

My wife is a social worker for the pediatric outpatient clinics at one of the local hospitals here in Fort Wayne. So, she works with families in all kind of situations battling the turns of everyday life on top of having a child or even multiple children with a terminal illness.  So, dealing with individuals in dire situations is an everyday occurrence for her.

She has a single mother family with two teenage children, one having type 1 diabetes. She works full time, but the check doesn’t stretch far enough. She was recently evicted and called my wife for help. Now you may feel that she got herself in this situation from bad decisions along the way. You’d probably be right in some cases, but I would ask you if you’ve ever been a single mother trying to a raise a family, one with a major illness, and trying to provide a good life for them. 

So, this family has been homeless for over a week. The great people at Charis House allowed them to stay there for a few days until they got a plan together. Their plan right now is to live in an extended stay hotel for a few weeks or join the homeless network that goes from church to church each week.

Last night, was move out night from the house she was in. After a long battle with the home owner to allow her to reclaim her belongings, we were able to get in. The beginning stages of homelessness look like a completely furnished home as is and having to pack everything you belong into garbage bags and have it out of the house in a matter of only a few hours. No time for boxes to pack things properly. Where do you start is the first question…

Thanks to our dear friend Jeff, who’s brother owns a delivery company, we had a large truck to pack stuff in for the move. Oh, since they’re homeless, where do you take the stuff? Good question, they had some space lined up that fell through last night, so my wife and I were calling all over trying to line up space. No space available at 7pm. Luckily Jeff’s brother’s business is a bit slow and agreed to allow us to leave the stuff on the truck for the night until Saturday in which we found a place for the stuff.

Long story short, I felt broken for this family to pack everything they owned into garbage bags and dive into a period of time being homeless with no where to go other than a hotel. No friends would take them in. No friends knew that they were in this bad of a situation. They are even attached to our church, and no one knew their situation. I know it’s not all on us as individuals to know everything and it lies on them to seek help, but it should challenge us to get to know the person that sits next to us at our churches.