WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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STREETLIFE– The Invisible Family is made
possible in part through a grant from The Castle

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Foundation.

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[music]

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Consider the homeless

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and the first images will likely mirror the
walking wounded dealt with daily by any big city

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police force. The huddling of men around
an oil drum fire to ward off the early

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morning chill. Give me a
bottle before you go.

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There we go. Give me the
other one now. Huh?

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You don’t have any more? The
rousting of public drunks sharing a

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common bottle of cheap wine
on a business doorstep.

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You are going to kick my (expletive)!
Confrontations with angry

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men who work by their own set of
unwritten laws. Men without possessions,

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out-of-sync with surrounding society,
marching to an inner voice that drives

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more than guides, a few belongings
jammed in a bag over a shoulder,

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they walk a solitary path which always
seems to lead to the lines, the

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lines to be fed and the lines for shelter.
The homeless are essentially a bunch

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of people who are lazy,
crazy, drunk and doped

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or the stereotype that most of the homeless

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are de-institutionalized
mental patients and are

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chronically mentally ill. I think that
is the leading mythology, the leading

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stereotype of the homeless
today in America. Seven!

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But new faces are appearing in
the homeless ranks. Young faces,

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family portraits, innocent eyes
viewing life on the street. They are

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images that defy our preconceptions
of the homeless. The homeless

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today are younger, better educated,

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disproportionately non-white and if there
is one institution that most of the

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homeless have been in, it’s not a
mental hospital, it’s the US military.

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The homeless population is changing
in terms of its composition.

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Approximately a third of the
homeless population nationally

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is composed of families with children. So

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we are talking about a different
population of homeless

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people from the homeless
populations of past decades.

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Long regarded the sole domain of
dispirited single men who turned

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their back on society, the streets of
homelessness are now playing host to an

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ever-increasing number of families. Very
much so. We have been able to estimate

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that probably about one-third of
our population here are families.

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Might be there are two-parent families, one-parent
families and that’s the biggest rise that

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we have seen is with our families. I mean I
never expected I would be where I am sitting.

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You know, I was married, ten years,
thought I had a husband that would

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take care of me and it just doesn’t happen.
Always married – you know, it’s not always

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as they say at the end of the fairytale, it’s not always
the ‘and they lived happily ever after’. And it can

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happen to people that have it all.
It’s just, things happen.

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Things happen in your lifetime that
you don’t expect to happen. It’s

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really hard if you have
lived up here and then all

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of a sudden you are shot to the bottom.
Homelessness today in America

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is nothing less than an American nightmare.

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And daily, with certainty,

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new homeless families
are appearing in Utah.

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[music]

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A typical late winter day
dawns in Salt Lake City.

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Business is usual on an unremarkable
day for the vast majority of

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Utah residents and as 10,000 cars
take their final turn to downtown,

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they skirt an easily overlooked
trailer park on the West side, a

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camp where another day of survival is
dawning as the night manager begins

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his rounds.

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Seven o’clock! Slowly

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coming to life in silhouette against the rush hour
traffic is the only designated emergency shelter

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for homeless families in the mountain west.
Home for as many as 30 families

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at a time, the shelter maintained by
Travelers Aid represents a bottom rung on

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society’s ladder. It’s a battered
welcome mat for men, women and children

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whose only other option would be the
street. And each year in droves, they pass

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through the ramshackle office
seeking a roof over their heads.

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Forsilla Salares is the Executive Director
of the Travelers Aid Society in Salt Lake,

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the agency operating the family shelter
on a shoestring budget. We’ve seen an

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increase here in this office, about
a 10% increase in the overall

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population. We’ve seen about a 20%
increase in homeless families.

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People who are living in a car,
that’s if they still have a car,

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many have gotten to the point when they
see us so they don’t have a car left

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to live in anymore. They have been living
in a car maybe for three or four months

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before they come here. A lot of
anger, a lot of anger at the world,

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at themselves . Most of it is
at themselves but it is focused

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out at the world and out – you know, look what these
people have done to me and you know, nobody gives

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a damn about what’s happening.
They are tired, they are hungry.

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I have had families coming here who
haven’t eaten for two days last

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summer and that just kills
you to have a baby screaming

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and reaching for your refrigerator ‘coz he saw
some milk in there. We’re the only city other than

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Denver in the Rocky Mountain
area and between Chicago

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and the coast that provides some type

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of services for homeless people. So we are

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in some ways, yeah it’s a crossroads, a
catchall for some folks but I don’t want

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to give the impression that they are all
coming from out of state because they are not.

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Since its earliest days as a pioneer town, Salt
Lake City has been a crossroads in the mountain

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west. In the 1980s, the Wasatch
Front still finds itself

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a one-day drive from the next major
urban areas. And this central location

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is a critical factor in the rise of
homeless families in Utah. The majority

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of families using the homeless shelter
in Salt Lake City are from out of state.

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License plates testify to the migration of
families as they chase rumors of new jobs

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or the opportunity that has eluded
them elsewhere. They will say to us,

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well, I have heard that
there is work in Denver,

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can you give us gas money to get
to Denver, if they have a car

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and if the car is running. Most of the time
the car isn’t broken down because they have

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bought – you know, they only own
old cars and they have all other

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possessions that they have had they have been carrying in the cars
and they have been living in the cars but if they don’t have a car,

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they don’t even have that. Very depressed.
Kids, mom, dad,

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just gross, gross depression
for all of those people.

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They have been unable to find jobs a lot, some
are just touring around the country constantly.

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If they hear of one job in Kalamazoo,
they all head for it. Utah

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is unique in terms of its homeless
population in the sense that a

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larger proportion of the
homeless in Utah are what I

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would call transient homeless
people or families, people who

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by and large are not indigenous
to the state of Utah but

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were passing through the state, often

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going to the West Coast of
California or returning from

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California after they made
an attempt to find a job.

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Sociologist Richard Ropers is a leading
national figure in the study of the homeless.

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From his base at Southern Utah State
College in Cedar City, he has observed

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local governments passing the buck
in responding to homeless families.

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In my experience, I found that
many city officials throughout

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the country often blame other
states or other cities

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for their homeless problem. They
often conclude that the homeless

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have been deliberately shipped
to Salt Lake City or to

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St. George or to Cedar City often
through what is called ‘Greyhound

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therapy’ where social service
agencies in one city or town

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will give a family or a homeless
individual a one-way bus ticket to

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another city, another town, another state.
Homeless families might

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seem elusive. More likely we fail
to recognize them on the streets.

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They don’t fit a clear stereotype as they work
under viaducts to keep their cars on the road.

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For most, the car is everything,
more than transportation.

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For some, it’s been their only
dependable shelter for months.

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Very few families set off on their travels
with Salt Lake City as the final destination.

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As a crossroad, the city serves as a
collector of homeless families and hard luck

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stories. Stories like Michael Good’s.
Well, originally I was coming

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from St. Joe, Missouri and stuff and I was on
my way to California and stuff like I had to

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see what kind of work and business and
by-by this and that they had out there.

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Well, I was on my way out there and I got way out there by the
Lake by the truck stopped. And I went to gear it in and stuff like

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high(ph) speed \'79 Toyota and
stuff and I went to gear it in

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and stuff like, and all of a sudden all my gears went out of it. Well,
anyways, we got out there on the highway with few clothes in hand,

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and stuff like that and were standing out there on a ramp
to see if we would be able to hitchhike on a highway

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and stuff, you know. So I stood out there with
my thumb out and some nice lady came by and

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picked us up and brought us down here. Being stranded
in Salt Lake City was the good family’s first exposure

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to being homeless. The same
is true of Jim and Elaine and

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their two boys, Gabriel and Keith. This
family from Maine is an example of

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what can happen on the road. Heading West,
they set their sights on California

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but they hit Salt Lake City, flat broke.
I donated plasma

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for gas money and at the
plasma center, they

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pulled the needle out of my arm accidently and
it fell on my leg and the chair and stuff

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and they just put it back and I
didn’t really think nothing of it

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at the time, it didn’t really –
the regular donation went on

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without any problems and then
a week later, I developed a

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staph infection in my shoulder.
The infection hit Jim.

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Surgery removed a portion of
his collarbone. It left Jim

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disabled and their family stranded.
Elaine took a job.

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As Jim recovered, Elaine was offered a
new job in Ogden. Medical complications

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slowed their arrival and the job evaporated
with the employer who had extended the

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offer. And then getting
here and realizing that

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we didn’t have any money to stay anywhere and
I called him up and there was another guy

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that answered the phone that said, yeah, well,
he has gone to Cedar City, he is not here

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in Ogden anymore. It was like getting
hit right in the face, it was like,

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wow, you know, what do we do?
Broke, with a 10-year old and

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3-year old in tow, Jim and Elaine took to
sleeping in their car in Salt Lake City.

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Denny\'s, motels and stuff like that,

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we spent about four nights
in parking lots. It was cold

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and expensive for the gas so
we just, we did what we had

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to do. When we first went to the shelter,
we got there, we had been staying at,

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what was it, some parking lot like Denny\'s or something
like that and it was about four o’clock in the morning

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and it got real cold so we decided yeah,
let’s go there and see what it’s like.

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I didn’t want to be there.
I just – it wasn’t the

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environment that my kids were used
to or that Jimmy and I were used

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to but he went in, you know, I
wouldn’t go in and the kids

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didn’t go in and then they took us down
to our room and I just looked at it

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and I told Jimmy, I said, I’m glad, you
know, we have a roof over our head

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and there is heat in here and everything,
I said but I don’t like it here.

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I said, get me out of here as quick as you can
because I just don’t like it. Jim and Elaine

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became part of the nearly 1500 men, women
and children who stayed at the family

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shelter in 1987. During the last seven
months of the year, the shelter

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averaged 20 families and 74 people per night.
The number is peaking during the summer

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months. The families are packed into
six trailers, subdivided into four

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compartments, each roughly six feet by 12
feet. The typical family sleeps afford to a

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room and the unit was too
small, single beds. On

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any given day, two dozen families used the
communal toilet and shower facilities

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located in a separate trailer. During
the summer, the lack of space forces

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families to live in the dayroom, a couch all
setting that access part waiting room, and

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daycare center.

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On full days, the noise is a punctuated
doll war. Families can work off the

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dollar rent their charge per night
by doing chores around the shelter.

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And outside, the air is filled
with the sounds of freight trains

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pulling through the local yards and
the ever-present freeway traffic that

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passes just beyond a bare frozen
playground. I don\'t know much about

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distance, but I know it gets hot at night in the trailer.
So, you can\'t sleep over the heat. At least it\'s to

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one, not to cough. So we\'d open the
window to get some cold air but

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then also came the rumbling of
the trucks and the honking and

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all these things of city traffic.
And after about three nights,

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we just didn\'t hear anymore of it, you become accustomed
to noise where you are to go to sleep. It\'s a

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life that requires adapting, adults
swift through donated old clothing

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looking for shirts and jackets for their
children. Kids band together to form a

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clubhouse under a sheltered trailer. Almost,
but not quite oblivious to the reality

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of being without a home. While the
shelter is a big step up from

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sleeping four or five in the family car, all
the families we spoke with said their first

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day in the shelter was a significant shock.
I was very scared when I came

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to this shelter, I was, you know, I\'ve heard, you know,
did year, you know, the homeless that they take what

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they can get and I was just afraid of, you know, what would
happen, wouldn\'t the kids be abused with the kids be

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hurt with, you know, being down in the... down
in the area where they are with the kids,

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you know, would something happen to me
or the kids. It wasn\'t so bad you want

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to run away, it was still a
safety place, a haven kind of

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where you went on the street, I was grateful, I
wasn\'t on the street with nowhere to go. That could

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have been the cases as well. We have doubt and the
best way I could but my wife says I just can\'t

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take this. I said, why? She says, well, you have to
go that are restroom or something, you\'ve got nine or

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ten different women in there, you got all these
kids running in and out, you\'ve gotta buy

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your own food, put your names on your bags,
you know, whose food is whose, people ripping

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you off left and right, you couldn\'t leave the trailer
with your stuff in there, if you did, more than an

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hour or two, somebody walk into your room, rip you off of
everything you\'ve got. Of course, we don\'t have much anyway. It\'s a

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chaotic environment and
I don\'t know I think...

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I think we kind of look at ourselves like...
Like we\'re not the type of people that we\'re

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supposed to be there and I thought
it\'s just designed for a stereotype

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type people. As the shelter manager,
Maxine Greer understands the physical

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limitations of the facility. Conditions have
prompted her to nickname the family shelter,

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The Ghetto. Well, those
families here get a life. We\'re

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surrounded on like a triangle
by the freeway on three

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sides and the other side is
railroad tracks. The yard is a

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sea of mud with gravels on over it
and it is not a good environment

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for families. This is especially
hard on children and they

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shouldn\'t be here. They should be
in places where there are better

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services and it\'s a little
more comfortable than

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here. We\'ve had, you know,
problems trying to keep everything

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working and keeping it like
having enough hot water for

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everybody and, you know, the numbers are just
enormous and the usage for the willing some you

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have is waiving on where I should be.
And then the restrooms

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are in the trailer clearing the
front of the... this place. And

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they have to walk, clear from those back, back
trailers to give their kids a chance to go the

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
bathroom, they take a shower and run in the rows back to their
trailers, that\'s... it\'s not conducive to good healthcare

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
and it\'s not conducive to, in any way, that
a family would like to live. It\'s hard

00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
to give him a shower, I gave Gabe a
shower and after that he broke out

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
with a fever of 104 and I was scared to give him
a shower after that coz I didn\'t know if it

00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
was being so cold after taking the amount of the
shower if that\'s why he broke out with it or

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
why? It\'s sort of like a labor
camp environment, you\'ve

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
anyone has ever been in a labor camp
environment, it\'s not pretty. Conditions at

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
the shelter compound are far from pretty.
Beyond the midwinter dashes in

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
sub-freezing temperatures to toilet facilities,
the shelter fights continual battles with

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
inadequate plumbing and leaking pipes.
Human waste has been found in the shower

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
stalls. Fire extinguishers are pass
effective date and hang useless in the

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
trailers. Insulation is makeshift
in many cases as is electrical

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
wiring. As a result, the shelter constantly
struggles to be in compliance with

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
fire and safety codes. Oh,
well, it isn\'t, I mean,

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
it just isn\'t bad, you know, the trade off this is what, what you\'re
gonna do, you\'re going to allow people to die on the streets.

00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
[sil.]

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
Stay in there, I need to open
your mouth as big as you can.

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
[sil.]

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
Hygiene and safety are more than issues of
convenience. They formed the battle line

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
for homeless healthcare that resembles a medical
mission in a third-world country. Either

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
in the shelter or on the street, the
challenges of being homeless take an exacting

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
physical tool and as is often
the case, the first to feel the

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
wait are the children of
homeless families. One thing

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
would hit one child, they were all
guaranteed the same type of illness

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
within a week or two, you know, you
just see that with the respiratory,

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
any kind of viruses just goes through
that population like wildfire.

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
And even with our flu shots and/or flu
vaccinations, they didn\'t seem to

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
help much the viruses changed strains
and we\'re seeing about probably,

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
I\'d say about 50% of the shelter populations
have some kind of respiratory illness

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
right now. You have so many... they\'re
constantly under physical stress.

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
Their physical stress, emotional,
mental stress is put on them.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
They need so much more in terms of nutrients
just to handle their conditions and then

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
it\'s just a catch 22 they don\'t
have the resources available. We\'re

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
taking... we\'re going back to the
basics of public health training where

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
around the turn of the century, your major
medical issue was just hygiene issues,

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
you know, the greatest thing that they ever
invented was soap and the ability to wash

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
your hands to prevent the spread of germs and
that\'s what we\'re talking about here when

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
you\'re dealing with it, almost all of the things you\'re
seeing here at the shelter and it\'s the same things.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
You know, that everything could be
preventable. Where you... you know, we

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
see quite a bit of TB and we\'re trying
to do some TB testing, it\'s predicted

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
that like 40% of the homeless have
tuberculosis and you never would see that in a

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
normal population. We\'re going back
to health issues in the 1920s,

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
you know, before the advent of penicilin, so it
is, it\'s like we\'re going into a third-world

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
country, they use... people don\'t have
access to the mainstream into what our

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
the normal society has. They
just... they can\'t get in.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
The shelter is a long walk from
medical care and necessary

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
prescriptions and is just as far from
a decent meal and proper nourishment.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
Cooking is not allowed in the family
shelter. So, the only hot meal of the day

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
usually comes at the end of a walk through
rail sidings and loading docks of the

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
west side. Here, like clockwork
each weekday, a migration takes

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
place at 11:45 AM. One by one, the homeless

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
appear from the shelters, fields and
viaducts. On an average day in Salt

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
Lake City, more than 400 men, women
and children join a march of

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
despair that leads to dining hall
of the St. Vincent DePaul Center.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:58.000
[music]

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
Staffed by volunteers and fueled by donations,
St. Vincent\'s provides a hot meal with

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
no questions asked. While television crews
routinely document the Thanksgiving and Christmas

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
meals served here, the reality is that
the numbers wise dramatically in the

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
summer months, and now each month
is logging an increase. I mean,

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
we see it in our statistics by the
month, just by the month going up

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
since well like December of \'87
starting this year, January

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
of \'88, like now, we\'re up
over a hundred more per

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
day of people that are coming in.
The... and what we

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
see the biggest rise is not so much in
singles as in the families. All of the

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
national statistics say that homelessness
is on the rise by 20% and we are seeing

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
the same thing right here in Salt Lake City. I mean
that, I think that we\'re looking at something that,

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
as far as I\'m concerned is a disparate
situation, our population has

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
grown by 30% from this
time last year and it is

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
not because that, you know, we have more and more
services available, it\'s not because of that

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
it\'s because more and more people are
flowing into the streets. We see it

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
constantly. The best parameter of the
ebb and flow of St. Vincent\'s is

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
Gary Stein. Up until a year ago,
Gary lived on the streets but

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
now works at St. Vincent\'s as a counselor
and the man who counts women and children

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
at the door. I\'m a terrific person myself.
I\'ve been out here

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
and it\'s throughout... a year ago, I was
one of the biggest thumbs out here. Are

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
we doing any work between
four to 500 people than

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
now. And kids of, okay,
if I\'ve had women and

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
children, especially the kids, I\'ve
had it all the way up to 94 kids and

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
women and what\'s so pitiful
about it as they come

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
in here I mean I\'ve seen them come
in here without shoes, without

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
coats and then just make
sure what I do more and

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
more for \'em. A lot of \'em, I\'m
not just one person with two or

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
three kids, it\'s like a guy last
week, he came in here with his

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
wife and had eight kids. Well what
got through my mind is I wanna

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
take \'em home with me, but I
can\'t do it, because the kids

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
are what counts out here, I
it\'s nothing I get the men

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
because it\'s like the men count too.
Everybody out here and the kids count.

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
On top of the kids are the ones that
really count, because these kids a lot

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
of \'em don\'t even have a toy to play with

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
or pure glove to put on or boots

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
or hat, it\'s... well, it\'s a long
time before listening... probably,

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
I\'d been here a year and I know what\'s getting worse.
And you come into here and you look around and

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
you see yourself and your
children with what people

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
class of street people and stuff like that and you
look around yourself and you\'re right in the middle of

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
them, you know, just realize a, you know,
better often the person sleeping at the men\'s

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
shelter or something like that, you
know, it\'s the egg soup in the face. At

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
one minute past one, Gary Stein
shuts the gate to St. Vincent\'s.

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
More than 380 men, women and children
have passed through in less than an hour.

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
In many cases, it will be
the only meal of the day.

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
[music]

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
Private suite kitchens continue on Sunday, in a
more informal but no less compelling setting.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
In the early morning hours, before the city is
come to life, while men still huddle for the

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
warmth around open fires, the stage is
being set for the weekly miracle under the

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
for south viaduct. And
we just need three, big

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
work tables here with the washing
on the end and then our food down

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
the center. Starting with a single camp
stove, a few years ago, Jennie Dudley

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
became a fixture on Sunday mornings in a
solitary effort to battle hunger among the

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
homeless in Salt Lake. What stretches
the imagination is the program that is

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
growing from that first small stove
without a network of contact, without

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
public money, without staff, Dudley
now manages a full-blown food

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
project that draws dozens of volunteers
and hundreds of pounds of donated food

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
each week. It also draws
hundreds of the homeless. It

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
never run out. Never run out of food. The Lord
always supplies just the right amount. And He always

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
has the right amount of people and... Interesting, how many
people do you feed approximately? They tell me that we

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
feed between five and seven hundred people. There
is God, so you came to help. Well, God is good.

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
See, he brought you to help today. Hallelujah,
he brought all these beautiful food.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
Isn\'t this nice? Glory to God.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
His wonders to perform. Deeply
religious, Jenny Dudley views her

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
work as a calling to work with those in
greatest need. And each week, with a

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
minimum of advanced planning, donations
stream in to fill the plates of the homeless.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
We can\'t look at what isn\'t being
done, we just need to go to that.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
There isn\'t any reason and there will be because
the vision is that big. That all of these people

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
can be cared for us. Spinning from
closed pile to grid line, she sets a

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
pace that few tried to match. The only break
in the action comes when she offers the

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
pre-meal prayer. We just come
to you right now father in the

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
precious name of your son, Jesus.
And we just thank you so much

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
for the things that you\'re doing.
Nourish our bodies father.

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
We just thank you for that. We just
praise you in the precious name

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
of your son Jesus. And all of that
agree with this prayer would say,

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
Amen. Amen. Young, old, Indian,

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
Hispanic, white, male, female.
Sunday mornings

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
under the fourth south viaduct defy
easy explanation. Everybody gets fed.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
There is always enough. Sometimes
just barely. I asked a volunteer

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
that how it can happen week in and week out.
And they pointed a cowboy hat in constant

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
motion. A woman says, \"She
does not walk alone.\"

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
For a family just hitting

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
town, other food options exist. Food
pantries such as this one operated by the

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
Community Action Program are scattered around
the Salt Lake valley. Qualified applicants

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
can get an emergency three-day supply of
food, comprised of donated food or federal

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
surplus commodities, the parcels are
designed to be short-term survival packs.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
In any given month, 45% of the folks
that we serve will be 12 years old

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
or under here at Crossroads. And the
point... the basic point to make

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
about that is that children are defenseless. If you
consider a child who is 12 years old or younger,

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
they are completely defenseless. They are not responsible
for what their parents do. They\'re not responsible

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
for trying to find the job. They couldn\'t get a job. They
can\'t apply for public assistance. They can\'t do anything

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
for themselves. And they\'re not responsible
for the situation they find themselves in.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
And yet, they are a very large proportion of
the people that suffer from hunger in our

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
state and increasingly from homelessness.
This is Sophe and her three

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
children. They left the pantry with three
day supply of food on their first day as a

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
homeless family in Utah. Almost half the
food would remain in the containers

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
since they cannot cook
in the family shelter.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
We originally met Sophe on her way to a field
office at the Department of Social Services

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
after her first night in the family
shelter. Her story is typical of women

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
who find their lives rift apart
by sudden divorce or abandonment.

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
Well, my husband more or less better than me.
He moved... we moved to Las Vegas for job

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
reasons. He went down a month before
I came down. He called, said,

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
you know, I\'ve gotta place that\'s come down here and you
know, job markets good down here because market was so

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
slow up here. There\'s just no
work so... I packed the kids up

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
and went down. And we found an apartment.
We were living in a motel for a

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
while and found an apartment and brought
all the furniture down. And last week, he

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
decided... for me it was... there
was... there is no more reason

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
for us to be together. If it isn\'t going to financially
do, he didn\'t want us around. So told me to go back

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
to Utah and he will stay in Las Vegas. And
he sent me back up here. I had no options.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
I have no money to get an apartment on my
own. My concerns were it\'s winter. Salt Lake,

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
it\'s cold. And living in a car
isn\'t a place, it\'s too cold.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
My concern was having a place
for the kids to sleep,

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
food in their stomachs. And I\'m expecting...
I always read stories about everybody else.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
You know, how those families living on the
street. They live in their shelters and

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
they\'re having to stand in the soup line for
food stuff. You know, I never feared I be there

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
in that position. Now I am and I
kind of kick myself for thinking,

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
you know, that I\'m better than they are,
you know, I\'m really not. Through a maze

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
social service interviews, a maze artificially
shortens, so that we could document them. Sophe

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
applied through her life story.
Personal pain translates to statistics,

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
in an attempt to justify welfare support under
the Aid to Families with Dependent Children

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
program. I have once in Las Vegas,
but in a very... In Las Vegas?

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
But I am from Utah. Yeah. Did you
receive any assistance from Las Vegas?

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
The welfare program, shortened
to initials of AFDC

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
is only an option for single parent
families. During our research, we

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
encountered two nuclear families that are
actually split out of about desperation to

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
qualify for support payments. The husbands
moved to the emergency men\'s shelter

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
and several de-parentized their families. So
that their wives and children would qualify

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
for AFDC. Besides the welfare screening

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
interview, Sophe has interviews for
medical needs and self sufficiency. The

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
goal was to encourage welfare recipients to
embark on a course that will deliver them from

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
the door. In Sophe\'s case, it would
mean giving life to the thoughts that

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
raise through her mind that first
sleepless night in the family shelter.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
I have... my main goal, I want to go to school
to get myself a career in the medical field,

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
which I always wanted to do and be able to
support myself and my three children. I\'m

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
not looking for pity. I not looking for anybody\'s pity. I
just want to people to know, it happens to the anybody.

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
I came from a good life. I
had a good family, you know.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
And I came from a good family. I mean,
I had a home and loving parents.

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
I had an education. Went to school, graduated
from high school. I had everything

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
until now. While welfare is
out of the question for able

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
body two parent families, Utah leads the
nation in developing a work program

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
to provide a subsistence payment to families
in return for community service work.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
Known as the Emergency Work Program,
the plan provides $400 per month for a

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
family of four in return for 32
hours per week of work. It\'s public

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
work. In this case, rehabilitating low income
housing for the Salt Lake City Housing

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
Authority. I think it\'s
the primary reason for

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
homeless is people wants the job,
gotten discouraged, they are

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
evicted from the apartment because they can\'t
pay the rent. And they end up in a shelter.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
And simply providing room

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
and food doesn\'t meet their need.
Their need is a steady job.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
And the only way to cure the
problem is to work with recipients

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
in terms of education and
training, job leads,

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
unemployment, and help them get that job.
This year, for

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
example, in Salt Lake County
we\'re serving about 320

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
households today. And last year,
we were serving about 250.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
So that\'s about 25% increase. Dave

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
jumped on the program within days of his
arrival on a bus from Colorado. Homeless

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
with his wife Pate and school-aged daughter,
he worked on street repair for Salt Lake City.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
When you hit a big city... well, Salt
Lake City, Utah is about the only

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
place I\'ve ever seen this type of a program
that they\'ll give you so much in food stamps.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
Then they\'ll give you so much in cash.
You know, like myself,

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
I make $400 a month by working for
the city. And $400 a month, when it

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
comes to paying rent, paying the gas
and electric and buying what little

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
furniture you can with what\'s left over, it
will get you no worries. You can survive.

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
Unfortunately it doesn\'t meet
all the needs. It provides a

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
person\'s emergency, basic
necessities and tell their family

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
that is able to get a job.
And I wish, we could provide

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
a higher amount. We don\'t have
unfortunately the funds for it. And it\'s

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
only temporary assistance.
Employment is the

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
overwriting factor in most cases of family
homelessness. But a slumping economy

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
that has renewed in out-migration of need of Utahans has
also substantially cut into the jobs for homeless families

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
in surge of work. Biggest
problem that we have

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
is, most of people have
worked and used to work in

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
laboring jobs, construction
jobs and that\'s where the Utah

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
economy is in trouble. We\'ve seen an increase
in service jobs and mining. But we really

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
need to see an increase in the
laboring, construction jobs before

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
those cases are really gonna decline.
Within the state, I think

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
in the long-run, we will see
a decline, because we are

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
successful in helping participants move into
regular jobs. In the long-run that\'s gonna

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
pay-off. And in formal clearing
house for employment for the

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
homeless has been set up in Salt Lake City.
Known as The Inn, each day, the

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
west side store front has hundreds of homeless
men pass through for a few minutes of warmth

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
and latest word on jobs in the area.
In the first months of 1988,

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
there were few jobs at The Inn.
And it hasn\'t changed. Nobody

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
reports finding a job. We\'ve been to

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
help a few people find a job. And
that\'s exciting for everybody because

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
it\'s so rare. So, my contact with the
employment that\'s apart from many statistics,

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
which are bad enough and it\'s hopeless.

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
Ray has logged a lot of hours
at The Inn and in temporary

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
work offices in search of a job. A
job like he used to have. A job

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
that translates to home and family.
Well, I checked

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
all the drilling rigs. I went... I
had a car back. Then, I went to

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
Montana, Oregon, California, Nevada.
And there

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
are few rigs. And then the economy,
throughout wherever I went,

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
I felt like I was out of place because I was born
and raised in Utah. I made... I\'ve had three homes.

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
The first home was in Spanish Fork and I worked
in United States Steel Corporation. When

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
I went to Vernal, I had to sell out.
Well, I almost lost it to $900

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
a month payments. But I finally got
the house sold. Turn around and I

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
had to what I sold my house for. I turned
around and bought a trailer up there in Vernal,

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
in the oil field. Well, 40 years later, I
turned around, the oil field dropped off.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
I\'m getting phone calls that, \"Hey, you either pay up
or give your trailer back.\" So, you tried to sell your

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
trailer. Nobody gonna buy. I mean the
economy is gone. So, then I lost

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
my trailer. So, then I turned around,
come back to Provo and bought a house in

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
Provo. But there\'s no jobs.
What about those who say, you

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
don\'t want to work? Well, let\'s go to work.
Grab\'em up. I

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
used to work being a block company I go to 10,000
blocks. At United States Steel Corporation,

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
I worked in 140-degree temperatures on the
floor. Now, I wanna go to work. Bring

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
your shovels or bring your picks because that\'s
what they did to me out of SOS. Anybody had a

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
ditch to have to dig, digging the foundations
or anything like that. It\'s all done by hand.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
And hey, no swap. I know how to work.

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
I ain\'t afraid of work. I\'ve been hurt. I\'ve had
my back screwed up. They don\'t listen to that.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
They can care less. So you are in your own.
Oh! He\'s looking for a free meal ticket.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
Well, he\'s looking for a free this or
he\'s just looking for sympathy. Well, I

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
know sympathy is found in the dictionary too. You
know, I mean, I can say the same thing back.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
But I worked hard. I worked hard for
my houses. I lost them all. I lost my

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
car. If isn\'t the law on you, its your
banker on you, your creditor on you, okay,

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
well, they\'ve got it all now. And the President
of United States, he claims he\'s given

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
better jobs in this net. If he is,
where is it all at? Why is he feeding

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
people overseas in different country? He
can\'t even clean up his own backyard.

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
I think it\'s wrong. You\'ve got people
out here living on the streets that

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
are homeless totally. They even got shelter.
They live in cardboard boxes. They\'re living

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
under bridges. We\'ve got people up here
who sleep under the six street bridge

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
and go out and scrounge the wood to build the fire
24 hours a day because they\'re cold. They go to

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
a machine or some place to grab something to eat.
This is what we have to do when we first got

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
here. If it wasn\'t for the family shelter, we\'ll
be out the under the streets and the bridges.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
We need to provide more than food
and shelter. We need to help people

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
get a job. Problems don\'t go away. They\'re
gonna serve us in one way or another.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
And but, we have to address
the source of that

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
problem. And that\'s a decent job.
Ultimately soup

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
kitchens, donated clothing and even
emergency shelters are only band aids

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
for the greater wound that is homelessness.
And success in these small battles

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
does not necessarily translate to ultimate
victory over this national problem.

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
The issue remains very much in
doubt and has become critical

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
because we\'re now creating a
succeeding generation of the homeless.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
Okay. We\'d like you to come in

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
quietly. Stephen, can I ask you
to leave sweetheart. Thank you.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
Come in quietly. Michael find yourself
a sheet please. Thank you, Dobby.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
The school comes to order at the Salt Lake family
shelter. It\'s a unique program, attempting to

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
provide formal education for the
sons and daughters of the homeless.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
Stacey Bess, one of two Salt Lake City school
district teachers that work at the one main school.

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
Ages can range from six year
olds to high school students.

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
Class size varies from a handful to over
40 as kids and their families appear

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
and disappear over night. This
is Stacey \'s first month on the

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
job. And her initial impressions
are still vivid. I walked in the

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
dayroom. And I thought to
myself this is why I\'m gonna

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
work. And I saw the parents
and I saw the blank stares

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
on their faces. And I walked in
and I saw all these little faces.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
And they all look like parents.
They all had that, you know,

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
don\'t get close to me, you stay right away.
They took them a long time

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
to trust me. First time, I came in
and taught, I heard a little boy

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
out in the dayroom being
just verbally abused.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
And I sat here and glued myself to my
chair and I kept saying \"Don\'t stand up,

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
don\'t stand up.\" Because it\'s not
any state of mind to go anywhere.

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
And I thought, aw, how could they do that?

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
How can they feel as
much... as much hurt as

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
I could see them feel. First
two days... two or three days,

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
I got in my car and cried all the way home.
I thought the most horrible pain

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
letting them out the door. I knew
when they were with me, they were

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
safe. And that I could provide

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
comfort to them like any normal person would.
But I knew, when they got out the door,

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
that I had no control. They

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
like to be touched and like to be held. I don\'t
think they get a whole lot of that there.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
Mom and dad are trained their darnest
to make it to get on top of things.

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
Last thing they need is three or four little
children claiming all over\'em. They\'ve got enough

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
on their minds. Just, you know, very
normal. I guess you think you\'re

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
not touching\'em. And you really are.
But yet, they\'ve

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
had so much rejection that
they don\'t wanna take a

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
chance with you. I think is... that\'s
how I read them. But now they know, I

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
won\'t hurt them. I won\'t lash out at\'em.
I don\'t yell

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
at\'em. Yelling doesn\'t work. Sometimes in the
public school, you can say forget recess,

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
you are... no way, you\'ll sit in here. These
kids don\'t care. They\'ve had so many things

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
taken, so many privileges taken away.
Taking a privilege away

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
means nothing. The response is, I
don\'t care. I really don\'t care. Go

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
ahead, take at away. I\'m impressed.

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
In their writing I see,

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
I see dreams of houses. They want...

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
Lot of \'em want house in the country. They

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
want to be... they often
tell me I want to be happy.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
They will draw pictures and then
I say what does this picture...

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
What is it say? And then they
say, this is really happiness.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
They want to be happy. We ask them one day,
if you were the manager of the shelter,

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
if you ran the shelter, what would
you do for the people? That was a

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
real eye opener. That was the day
that I found out that, um, sometimes

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
people sleep on the floor. Sometimes
people don\'t have blankets.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
And I said, oh! kids, come on.
And they said, no, sometimes

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
people do sleep on the floor. And they
said, they would have nobody crying

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
at night. And I said to
them, do you people cry

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
all night? Oh! yes. We hear
babies cry all night long.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
Here as long as I use my time wisely, I

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
can spend half hour with each child.
As long as, the number

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
stay low, I can sit right next
to him, um, they can feel

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
my concern and got my arm around \'em and

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
we\'re laughing and we doing our spelling. These
are things public teacher... public educator can

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
do, as much as I get to do.
So, I know that I can come up

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
by my own being.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
But then 2\'o clock comes.
And then they\'ve got their

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
18, 19 hours with what

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
goes on outside. I hope
that I make an impact.

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
I live... my short term goal
is that, is that they know

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
that they\'re important. They know
that they\'re not just a number here.

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
I can give\'em a long term goal.
I don\'t get them

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
long enough. I don\'t have a
long-term goal for them. It\'s

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
humbled me. Wrap it up and it has
humbled me. It\'s made me very,

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
very humble.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
A debate lingers on how much of
homelessness is self inflected.

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
What appears beyond debate is that the children
on homeless families are the most obvious

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
victims. Denied opportunities through
spotty schooling, a trend in

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
lifestyle, borderline nutrition
and an abnormal definition

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
of what is normal daily life, the
children of homelessness have little say

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
in the circumstances could have made them
homeless. Without major corrections,

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
this will be the life they know,
a life under the viaduct.

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
That, I mean, we\'re right down in the depths
of where these people are and I\'m here to tell

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
you that all of the statistics coming back
and just what we\'re seeing in our own city

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
for here in Salt Lake City, right
now there are 500,000 homeless

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
children in our country. Those are not
made up or inflated numbers, they\'re real.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
That\'s what we are breeding.
The kids are resilient.

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
But I despair they come up in the
same way because this will be their

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
expectations of life. The
shelters okay, and it\'s not,

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
it\'s inadequate. You know, what I mean?
Second generation to live this way.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
Some of them don\'t anything else. They
were born, living out of their car.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
And they don\'t know

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
of anything else. Sure, they hear about it.
And they see it on TV or whatever.

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
But they live that way out of necessity.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
That\'s all they know. And

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
it\'s hard. It\'s hard to see some of those kids.
The parents are doing the best they can.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
And sometimes, it just not enough.
And the kids are

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
the ones that end up suffering.
What kind of people

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
will these children grow up to be.
They often miss school, they

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
suffer from poor nutrition. They
suffer from the psychological and

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
social instability of homelessness. Um,

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
we are asking for trouble.
And all of us are going to

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
bear the consequences of this
generation of homeless children in the

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
future unless we do something now.
Something fundamental to correct

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
the situation. We are at a turning
point now. We won\'t making

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
choices concerning our future. The way we want the state
to develop, the way we want to treat people who are less

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
fortunate, the way we wanna cover ourselves and our
economy goes bad. If we don\'t make the right choices

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
now, we don\'t have some vision in
making investment in people who are

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
in poverty situations and homelessness situations
today, that problem will continue to get

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
worse and at a certain point,
it becomes almost overwhelming.

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
It may be the bottom of the
ladder, but the family shelter

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
is never the final stop. Families
come and go each day. Most arrivals

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
come with night fall and most
departures go with the rising sun. Some

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
like Michael Gould and his family leave for transitional
housing maintained by the Travelers Aid society.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
A big step up from the shelter, a few
families can stay rent free in the small

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
duplexes for a limited time as they put together
furniture for an apartment of their own.

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
Other families are just gone.
Despite advise to the contrary,

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
they hit the road once again on the promise
of a good job somewhere down the line.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
And there are very few long goodbyes.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
Most of them not. There are few
that have been here long enough.

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
And now everybody here and you know

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
are willing to say goodbye. And
even then it\'s like, hey, I\'m gone,

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
I\'m gone, you know, I\'m outta here. And
most of \'em it is that they\'re just arrived

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
and wake up one morning and they\'re gone.

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
The one certainty at the shelter is that a new
family will be there tomorrow to take their

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
place.

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
As summer is peak period,

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
for homelessness, it draws closer, Salt Lake City is
making progress in opening a new shelter facility.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
Designed to house families and single men
and women in a sounder, safer environment

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
with better services, the shelter has struggled
for funding. The opening has been delayed.

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
And is now set for late this year.
And besides funding,

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
the new shelter has struggled for acceptance.
Some police and west side businessmen

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
are concerning that a new super shelter
will serve as a magnet for trouble makers,

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
disrupting business and draining city
resources. Those concerns crystallize

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
the struggle of a city coming
to grips with the homeless for

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
if there is a misguided stereotype of homelessness
that ignores the amble presence of families,

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
there is also a reality that
demands attention. The reality of

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
mentally ill men and women left at their
own devices on the street. The reality

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
that vagrancy, alcoholism and vandalism
cause the city hundreds of thousands

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
of dollars annually in services and
damages. The fact that we usually

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
forget that daily battles for survival
can produce a homeless go down in any

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
city. A godown in which many laws are
unwritten and the streets are mean

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
and unforgettable. Families
obviously exist uneasily

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
in this environment. Some manage to elevate
themselves above the conditions. Others

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
become more deeply mild(ph). Dave, Pate
and their daughter left the shelter

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
in February to work an a ranch. For
a while their life was looking up.

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
But then the job fell through. On March 21, the
reentered the family shelter in Salt Lake.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
Ray was last seen on his way to
Provo after lending a job. He said

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
he would not be back. Michael Gould found
work and is now living with his family

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
in transitional housing. His
sons are in public school.

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
Sherry, her son and daughter are now
living together in their own apartment.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
She has been homeless helped her
family grow. Sophe and her three

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
children qualified for state welfare
and left the shelter after a few days.

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
Jim and Elaine\'s luck was uneven
after they left the shelter.

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
They lost their car after posting it as a guarantee
against the first month of rent on a house.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
Legal action is still pending, from the infection
that developed when Jim sold his blood for

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
gas money to get to the next term.

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
And at the shelter, three families who\'re previously
left what they thought were better opportunities

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
had returned in the past month.
Employment had not worked out.

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
Relatives had ended the welcome. Some had
crisscrossed the west in an attempt to

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
establish routes. But the
dream remained illusive. And

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
another morning dawns at the family
shelter. And for man, woman and child,

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
the sequence of survival begins once again.

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
7\'o clock.

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:43.000
[music]

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
Street Life, The Invisible

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
Family has been made possible in
part through a grant from The Castle

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:45.000
Foundation.