The fall into Homelessness.
A majority of Americans are one paycheck away from the streets. One disaster away from losing everything. It's a precarious balancing act we all carry out, flailing our arms to keep from falling.
I had a nice apartment. A great job. A cute little car. My three little darlings the loves of my life and I was engaged to their father. Life was pretty much going amazing.
Then the disaster that changed our lives struck in the form of a young buck. He leapt in front of my car one night, on a 55 mph road. The car was totaled, and the insurance did not pay out enough to cover the loan.
My job was nearly an hour drive away. Suddenly I couldn't get to work, but I still had to pay the daycare for time the kids weren't able to be there for. I couldn't pay for the old car loan AND start a new car loan. It piled up so quickly, in a month we were evicted. The children's father decided to move to Kentucky to be with a girl he had met online. Nice.
I found a place I could work off the rent. A man who wanted his unused property to be converted into a blueberry farm. I was willing to do the work, and stupidly on my part, a verbal agreement was struck.
A little short of two years later, he remarried. We were forced to leave, Christmas Eve of 2016, because she wanted to use the property more.
I had saved up a little, but with my eviction was unable to find a place willing to rent to us. I used the money to purchase a little R.V. figuring I would be able to save enough from not paying rent to eventually purchase a small place of our own.
There are huge problems with that plan. Various repairs have drank down the savings. The alternator has been replaced, twice, the belt, the coil pack and other issues. Not to mention the prolific amount of gas it takes to run that beast. Not a dollar saved.
I have a full time job. The kids are in school. Halloween of 2017 there was a knock on the camper door. Someone got nosey and contacted child protected services. The kids were clean, fed, warm and loved. No abuse, no neglect. Our only crimes were being poor and living in an RV. But CPS threatened to take the three pieces of my soul I would die without unless I found immediate housing.
.jpg)
As I said above, the eviction from 2014 has made me a "risk" for renting to. Nothing saved up. 211 offered zero help, the Salvation Army and the County are out of funds.
So, we went to the homeless shelter. Taken from our solitude we are among fights, violence, drug abuse, domestic violence issues, fear and some really decent people.
There was literally blood on the walls when we arrived. Our RV was clean, quiet, safe and our own. The shelter a frightening den of chaos. The depression I have is crippling, anxiety attacks have sen me by ambulance to the hospital.
Child Protective Services never even came here to make sure we are where I told them we are. But they closed our case. They came, made threats, bullied us into the homeless shelter and struck absolute terror into the depths if my soul and the disappeared. But we're just homeless people, so nobody cares. Oh yeah, they did offer me some bus passes. #ThanksButNoThanks
I work hard, I am TRYING and saving once more. But we have been here since November, I have viewed dozens of rentals and nobody will have us. I will get us out of this mess, somehow.
But, if you think to judge those in this position, to stereotype, remember, you could be just one disaster away.
This post has been Resteemed and Upvoted by @familyprotection
are using "Child Protection Agencies"
to take children away from loving families
and place them in foster care or group homes
or put up for adoption.
THESE FAMILIES NEED PROTECTING.
Upvote This Comment TO HELP US HELP FAMILIES IN CRISIS.
You are AMAZING! Thank you for being fundamental in building supportive community on the Steem Blockchain so everyone who has gone through these terrifying circumstances, and is going through them now, can grow stronger knowing they are not alone! I have so much hope because of you all!! <3 <3 <3
Keep up the great work! I will always support YOU and all of the victims being terrorized by "child protection agencies".
Thank you @lyndsaybowes!
With tears in my eyes and a raging feeling in my heart! We have to help this family, I personally will do what I can, And I hope the rest of the @familyprotection community are behind me.
What do you say People?
Sure Mark, I just sent her 10 Steem, not much I know, but if more people could do that, the family could be helped.
I have also brought it to the attention of ecotrain in our slack group, we have some passengers in the US, let´s see if they can come up with something to help.
I believe the @familyprotection community is behind you, Well I am strongly behind you Mark. Heading over to my wallet!
Awesome that Steemians can help.
Can you help everyone though? What about Delusional Landlords and more verbal agreements?
Yes, we will always get everything in writing from now on. What a MESS!!
that one way to deal with "cps" are the cartel ways: they want to take your children away, take their lives. it's an attrition play, the more lethal wins. and so when a cps thugs invade an home he will never know if at the same time his family is being nailed on his own home walls. in the world we are living in war and violence are the only answer. remember their salary depends on taking your children away, how much would have they to be paid if they knew the outcome of crossing this door?
there is a story of a tree and refreshment... how does it goes?
Thank you so very much for your help, it is amazing.
if it's any help to you, our thoughts are with you and you have an incredibly courageous heart: we are in this all together, good luck
so sorry to hear that you had to go through this experience. it actually reminds me a bit of @arbitrarykitten's story, "10 Things I Learned From Being Homeless".
this is really so great work proud to have you on steemit buddy keep helping families out there i hope your comment could get 100000$ so there would be home for poor people and homeless families even with little rent they can have roof upside there heads .. lots of love ..
I do tend to believe the intention and purpose with the CPAs around the world is good. I know almost nothing about the US CPA, but I have had some experiences with the Norwegian child protection authorities (barnevernet) - both first hand, second hand and through media reports. Let me assume for a while that this applies to "CPA"s everywhere. Some thoughts:
We only hear about one side of the story - when some parents tell their version to the media, they can claim anything and hide whatever. The government officials have no rights to comment on the cases. I believe that at least here in Norway, a child would not be taken away from the parents without a very good reason (usually violence, alcoholism or drug abuse). Whenever there are cases like this in the media, probably there are some dark secrets that we haven't heard of. Even close friends may hide or understate their darkest secrets. Truth is, some people simply aren't fit for being parents - and they may not even realize it themselves.
Perhaps in most of the cases the agency does the right thing, in some few cases they do really terrible things, destroying families and only making things worse for the children they are supposed to protect. Of course, only the worst examples gets through to the media, so when reading stories ... one is to believe the CPA is all bad and nothing good. (every now and then there are also cases reported in the media where the CPA absolutely should have intervened, but didn't - in the hindsight it's always easy to point out that someone haven't been doing their job).
Quite some of the employees at the CPA are young ladies, without any life experience and without any parental experience. They may do terrible things, still believing they do what is best for the child.
Children have very different personalities. There has been a report in media recently here in Norway - and it's our experience as well - that the threshold for personnel in schools and kindergardens to file a report with the CPA is very low for children that are outside the "normal" (i.e. ADHD), this can cause conflicts and problems.
Cultural differences - what one party may think is completely OK may be very not-OK for someone else. On the extreme, there are quite many immigrants here in Norway that thinks it's completely ok to spank naughty children ... but that's an extreme no-no here in Norway, if there is a significant risk that the child may get spanked it will be taken away from its parents. I'd actually side with the CPA in such cases, that's not the way to raise children ... at least not in Norway! Weather it's OK to live in a caravan or not, that may also be sort of a "cultural difference". In this case, I'd side completely with the poster, as long as the children are healthy and happy, it's completely OK to live in a mobile home! It even looks very cozy from the pictures!
The CPA does have a quite awkward job after all - damned if they do, damned if they don't. The solid evidence is often missing, but still they have to do what they believe is the best for the children. It's for sure not a good situation.
Bureaucrazy! (misspelling intended). Create a simple rule like ... "parents need to be registered with a permanent address of residence", and cases can be decided without involving belief, feelings or personal opinions ... it also saves time, effort and taxpayers money, it's not even needed to visit the family and check how they are living. Unfortunately such rules does not always make sense, and there may be many reasons why the rules don't fit everyone (in Norway we even have natives that have been living a nomadic lifestyle for a countless number of generations ... still, one is very much supposed to be living permanently on one address in this country, particularly if having children).
Do you really think that this post of an obvious abuse of power, and a family put in despair by this wretched system, is THE PLACE to give your very LONG comment about how great the system is? Jeesh.
If you really want to discuss this do so on another @familyprotection post where a debate on these issues would be more appropriate.
You are not respecting this poor mother and her children.
I agree with you about that
If you read my comment that way, I think you should read it again. In this case I absolutely side with the poster.
The post was about a family put in despair - but the part about being harassed by the CPA was just a small part of it all - and the poster got through with it. Still the most upvoted and visible comment on this post is one attacking the CPAs around the world. That's also not quite right in my opinion.
I absolutely believe there is a lot of wrongdoings done by the CPAs of the world, but still there may be a need for such agencies.
CPS all over the country- gets PAID a BONUS for each child they take away! They are not incentivize to keep families together.
There are numerous cases of CPS across the nation- involved in CHILD SEX PEDOPHILE RINGS!
Not everyone is a kind hearted person. The agencies; enabled by the personal choices of their employees are vile, and there is plenty of evidence to support the fact. You could start with looking into Former Senator Nancy Schaefer's work if you truly want to comprehend what is happening on a large scale all over the world right now with these agencies. I've seen it myself, so I know. Brick by brick they are isolating families in a methodical manner so that the masses won't put two and two together in time to help eachother. There's a lot of documentary work on the horrors being perpetrated by these agencies. If you really believe what you have said above, I would implore you to look a little deeper into the issue. I'm not trying to offend anyone (unless you steal babies for pedo's for a living) with this comment, but we've been lied to people. It's about control, domination, and is part of that big picture everyone is trying to suss out. The dots are all there to be connected.
I wouldn't be surprised if that's a case in some countries, with commercial entities running big orphanages and bribing officials. In other countries and time periods, maybe the CPS is abused for political control, i.e. targeting parents by their political views. I wouldn't be surprised if "someone told us the parents are socialists" would be sufficient reason for the US CPA to react under the McCarthy age. But if you're implying that all the CPSes around the world has some kind of shared agenda ... then I must say, that do sound like one of the more crazy conspiracy theories to me.
Parkinson's law may be relevant though, any bureaucratic organization do have some internal growth pressure.
Such a system can only be based either on personal opinions from their employees or on stupid rules (like "you must be registered on a permanent address of living"), both things may be equally bad - yet, what are the alternatives? While for some the obvious answer would be "kill the whole agency", I do believe it's important with such an agency; children do have rights, and they are not able to look after their rights all by themselves.
Hi I ask that you check out my blog. I was ripped from my family at the age of 12 and never returned. so I spent my teenage years in foster care. I know many others that had the same life. As an adult I became a foster parent wanting to help out and found even more corruption. Than I became a Guardian Ad Litem and got to know the system even more. So I have made it my mission to spread awareness of what exactly CPS is and why I call it a beast. Like for instance 61% of the cases children are removed from their home are considered Neglect and not abuse. Neglect is a VERY wide category and is VERY open to interpretation. Please go check out my current posts and some of my past posts and you will see all the information I have laid out so far. And there is much more that I plan on telling.
I downvoted this comment, I don't agree with the reward you gave yourself for it
@tobixen.
Fair enough
This is exactly what happened to me. Mom sold weed to get by, got caught, and me and my brother went through the system. I was heavily medicated and cant remember most of my childhood.
I never understood the desire to medicate kids in the USA. In Europe medicine use is a fraction, I can't imagine our kids have more ''adhd''.
All for the Money and Gangster Corporations.
I am so sorry. Do you think the people responsible for this deserve to pay? they breath co2...
They breathe co2?
like you...
Ok. What does that have to do with anything?
I agree the opinion of adan @familyprotection. How much better would our children be treated themselves?
what if the foster parent or auxiliary,
then the character of our child will be affected as foster carpenters.
because our children are more valuable than possessions.
Thank you @hickorymack for your great post for protecting your family.
I love it.
Thank you @familyprotection and thank you @hickorymack for being brave enough to share your story. It's very true the theme that many people are just one check /one disaster away from situations like yours. Hopefully you will bounce back and also be an inspiration to others.
is there a theory on why this is?
This story really touched deep inside of my soul. I shudder at the fact that this can happen to anyone of us.
Can you imagine a simple car accident can change someone's lives so quickly?
Hey @hickorymack you are shining example of a real woman, mother, solider.
Hang in there with all your might, you will find a way. You will have a home for your family again..
Your dreams are much closer to you than you think!!
Thanks for sharing this story with us @familyprotection
so true!!!
Thanks for sharing your story and for being so unbelievably brave. Have you shared this with @familyprotection? They may be able to help you reach more readers to gain more support here. Blessings to you and your little ones. So sorry to hear this.
I am not totally initiated into the ways of Steemit. I'm very much a newb and feel so losat, until this post i had no idea there were communities and groups and such within Steemit. Pretty awesome, the power of people!
facebook goons and their lackeys dont' want you to know that.
Thank you for sharing your struggles with us!
I hope now that you have found steemit that you will not have to struggle alone!
I'll start off by sending a little donation, expect more to come!
Check your wallet :)
Bless.
A little?! My gosh man, I'm in tears, thank you. I can't be coherent at the moment. Just... Thank you.
the libertarian movement is based on two premises : 1 I will speak and 2 will kill you if you attempt to shut me up. this is rewritten and reformatted in 1st amendment and the second and so one.
the international spice trading fleet was there at the foundation... wait for the space gates to open and see again the true black flags...
my only advice start to read war manual on psychology and don't hesitate to move accross state borders... or even internationally. You enemy is weak, but will use all its power against you. you are fighting the us gov agents. you have no reason to believe that you will find any allies but your dog and children. all the rests aren't to be trusted. your only goal is to win. to win is to stay away from your enemy. remember they are territorial those cps.
your rv was lovely.
Wow Mark! That's one of the most exceptional acts of sharing, caring and generosity I have seen in my time on Steemit. Just wow...
ain't twitter, facebook and insta world... I think a lot of steemians will be socked and surprised to what is going on behind their illusions walls.
amazing use of steemit !!!
@markwhittam, I want to say thank you on behalf of my faith in humanity :)
I told your story on MSP Radio, and people started a fundraiser for you!!!! OMG, I am blown away at the loving generosity... If you wish to join us on the radio, click this discord link!!
https://discord.gg/47dcj6
Holy wow...
They have a chat room, you can just come type stuff...
I'm sorry, I'm trying. I'm not very tech savvy. I have installed the Discord App but cannot get it to open. :\
don't click on clear or unclear links. search the address on a search engine. here it is discord. then if you don't find the channel as you did here. because as much as I hope you can be sailed by the bitcoin spirit remember that there is a dark side too. some will want to steal your little help fund and others will not believe you. it isn't important what I believe.
so just to say, be carried even and even used in a conflict way bigger than your story but don't forget your goal. in short some will use your goal for their own benefits. win win. but stay focus. here it isn't "their" world...
That's awesome @occupywallets! I've been trying to think ways to give this post some traction-- taking it to the airwaves is brilliant, Bless you!
You should come join! It is very low threshold, as far as expectations... And hurray, look what we accidentally did for this beautiful soul in need! I am as impressed by my community as anyone...
Awesome work!
Thank you, your responses are overwhelming, it's incredibly humbling to see such a response to my story.
I will continue making updates and bringing light to the goodness I see in others as well.
Blessings, thank you.
Hey! I am just a member of Minnow Support Project, not an admin or anyone important... So what happened last night, for me, was my new tribe coming together to reach out and help a stranger, you... I am still blown away at the authentic generosity I witnessed...
So I wanted to follow up and not just disappear, after all this loving anarchy... Discord is the place where we hang out, cuz it is a functional chat platform where we can evolve in real time... I imagine you have your hands full, but if you get a few moments, just know that you will be welcome there if you want to come meet us... We don't see you as a charity case, more like a peer and a future friend who we had to sort of rescue before we could frolic a bit...
One thing you could do that will help everybody, including you... First, check this post out... It is a fundraiser report about this whole thing... Go meet people and leave comments, I bet folks want to meet you and hear if you are okay... Then, make a new post today from your perspective, and maybe the latest update? I suggest that because it will be yet another fundraiser, one which EVERYONE can celebrate... Let me know if you want editing help or whatnot...
https://steemit.com/news/@mfxae86/msp-waves-pirate-radio-on-pal-spontaneously-raises-funds-for-homeless-woman
I see that the community is really stepping forward to help you.
Please keep sharing your story with us.
When you feel like you can give further details about the CPS part of it, please tag your post #familyprotection to make sure that we see it.
Thank-you for sharing with us and give those precious children a kiss and hugs from your Steemit friends!
#familyportection solid advice on having a clear tag.
Keep writing about your story; Steemit is a very supportive community and it DOES have the ability to make a difference in your life. I'm glad to see @davemccoy and @luanne have reached out. @richq11 might also be a good resource; he's one of Steemit's CPS corruption experts. You can also reach out to @familyprotection.
Meanwhile, to everybody else reading this: You can help @hickorymack immediately by also spending a little of your voting power (remember this doesn't COST you anything!) to upvote all of her RESPONSES on this post! Remember, if enough people come through here and drop 20c, 50c and $1.00 upvotes on a number of comments, it quickly can add up.
@hickorymack if you have the ability to, you can help yourself by responding to as many of people's comments here as possibly, which will enable others to come through and upvote your comments. These may seem like very small things, but I have witnessed this community rally and greatly help those in need.
(Upvoting my own comment ONLY to give these suggestions more visibility)
Just a suggestion, but people can use a voting bot to send some money to this post also; I'm going to since my vote is only worth 1 or 2 cents. @hickorymack deserves it and then some!
That is also an excellent idea @lynncoyle1!
One of our witnesses @yabatmatt created the handy "Steem Bot Tracker" which lists most of the current voting bots: https://steembottracker.com/
Thank you...I love that site. I actually used it to upvote here already :) Unfortunately there are always people who may not understand the process fully and transfer money in the last few seconds which brought down the total for @hickorymack. But any little bit is helpful I guess :) Cheers!
Done. <3
I second that motion to reach out to @familyprotection!
Thank you so much for helping her @denmarkguy. Its awesome to see the people responding to her situation and the advice and guidance she is seeing. I also appreciate you bringing in far more experienced steemians because while we will do our best, the group I'm working with is made up of many smaller fish and our options are limited. Its all about helping @hickorymack, so we will be happy to do our part and either lead or support based on what works best for her and her children.
I'm going to write up a post of my own right now and see if we have anyone with a working smartphone they could donate to her so that we can get her connected and help her to learn steemit and maybe earn some extra by writing about her life experiences.
Thanks again, its nice to see so many awesome people assemble in one place to truly come to the aid of someone who really could use a break!
+1
This is why CPS pissed me off, you are trying to take care of your kids and you want them. Yet when someone doesn’t want their kids, lives in a very contaminated home, and uses food stamps to buy drugs they don’t care. They say well they are in a home, even though the house is infested and their parents do drugs. If I had the money I would help you but all that I can do is say I hope your situation gets better. 😔
It's very worrying. I read stories about heartbreaking deaths of children in the hands of CPS, and they had their sights on us. I have constant nightmares about it.
The system is broken.
Yes it is! There was someone that lives in the same town as me and my fiancé. They strangled their 4 month old because he wouldn’t stop crying. Come to find out they were visited 4 times by the CPS. It is sickening.
Oh my gosh, that's so awful!!! That poor baby.
who the fuck care, toughen up. you first. the rest can die. it is called prioritizing.
and if you didn't saw this awkshit just justified cps... they should have taken this one, but not yours...
And I checked on who liked your post, you seem to enjoy stroking your own ego. So why don’t you go fuck yourself quietly in a corner somewhere.
As crispy and lovely as a snowflakes along the seine... melting but still so refreshing. you are always welcome in my corner ;).
see you soon...
You’re such an internet troll.
Yeah, the world is pretty messed up.
little people with little power can do desperate things to your life. this is why small gov is necessary. I guess you are a democrat voter, who believe in bigger state and hillary the rapists? my message to you? .
First off what? Next thanks for assumptions I don’t like democrats nor republicans. I don’t vote, and it really does sound like you’re just spouting bullshit.
lock her up?
What?
Thank you for sharing your story. All beings deserve to live free and have their basic needs met. I believe open source solutions will help. I'm grateful that Steem is able to be a stepping stone of liberation for people. It's really inspiring. Wishing you peace, freedom and abundance. The best is yet to come. <3
Thank you, you being a part of the food is free project is one of the many great things people can do to help one another. Thank you for being out therr, getting it done.
nutrition!!! it is a war and your body needs to power your spirit. it is like preparing for the olympics... it takes years.