You Can’t See The Housing Crisis Like Me . . .

​Dear Dearest, 

February 2019 I was blessed with a love offering from the Movement Love Foundation to get on my feet. I was a displaced mother but Movement School hired me as a teacher’s assistant with high hopes of becoming a Language Department Chair. I also enrolled my son there because he had a learning challenge that I desperately looked for help for. You see I have an M.Ed with over 20 years teaching experience but I needed a job right then being I had 2 kids that had to eat right then. I also had a incarcerated husband and debt coming out of my eye balls. My car had just been reprocessed and my mother did everything she most graciously could. I was a preacher making almost zero. I was a writer, writing about true heroes. 
I used the love gift to get a home. It was not in great shape and was high for me but the next steps would have been the streets. The job paid very little but I became so good at teaching Spanish to kindergarteners that I thought I had the promotion in the bag. When I was told they had nothing for me the next school year I was crushed. I owed this landlord a year rent. I was never late until May and I was evicted in less than 3 weeks according to NC law. I went to court where the landlord lied and at that point I was homeless. 
Why do I tell you this? Because the affordable housing that is directly beside the school had 1000 applicants to 100 apartments yesterday. Decent, affordable  housing is almost impossible to find. And I cried seeing the line, in the cold, knowing that most of those folks will not get in. Many will go back to living in there cars while others like me, hotels and shelters. Shame on you Charlotte. We are not cattle as you gentrify the city and forget about the people who live here. Shame on you Queen City, for forgetting about me even with a Masters Degree; lifting up those with big money to drop but caring less about the stories, the layers, the whys of your people. Dearest, I didn’t stand in that line. I was too embarrassed as my child sits in that school expecting to have a home. I’m tired. My question Dearest, am I wrong? 

Displaced Yolanda

Dear Yolanda, 

I will not call you displaced. You are not your condition. You are not wrong for being tired but you will be wrong if you give up. Our housing crisis is so directly tied to employment discrimination, disparities in education and incarceration and you have been tapped out by all four. I suggest you find any employment at this point and get any social services such as Food Nutrition Program that will aid you. Get the affordable housing list and apply to all you can. Look at your credit because that’s still a factor and pray. I believe prayer elevates. Join local action groups. Your story needs to be told. You are loved. Never give up. ~ Dearest