Home is where the Heart is

The opening lines of John Howard Payne’s 1823 opera Clari, Maid of Milan begins with, “Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam/Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness 41% of today’s homeless are families; it is these families that are no longer familiar with the word home and with today’s economy there are more and more families on the edge due to foreclosures, evictions, job loss, and depleted affordable housing. Disruption of the American family is devastating and with the help of a shelter a family’s lives can be put back together; yet home sweet home is really what is needed in order to secure other things such as jobs and education in order to help a family succeed.

In 2006 my own family was living on the financial edge. With no safety net and existing week to week the rent we owed was increasing dramatically due to lack of funds and affordable housing for us. Finally, in February of that year we were evicted and we were forced to leave our home and the city I grew up in. Abandoning everything we had accumulated over a 17 year period we packed one bag per family member and shell shocked walked out the door to a new city and a new life. We were blessed not to be catapulted into the streets like some families, however we hesitantly ventured through the doors of a family shelter. A place that sheltered us, yet it was not our home; our refuge where we contributed domesticated affection to our household and our family. In time we did manage to move back to Salem, MA,  and  I recall my husband painting our daughter’s bedroom her favorite color - pink. It became a place when after a long day we could rest our tired bodies and tired souls, a place where we could sleep at night feeling safe and secure, a place where we could have meals together and with our pets that we loved, and most importantly it was a place we could call ours to decorate with the personal items of our lives; it was home.

Throughout the years we have encountered the bangs and the bumps that life gives to us all. Most of our hardship was caused by financial burden and having our rent at times be one of our main stressors. With no Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program available for us we did manage, yet it was an uphill battle that to this day I wonder how we have survived. My children are now grown and on their own and my husband and I are currently empty nesters that still live on one income, but at least we are housed in an affordable studio; a place that we feel and a place that we still call home. Home is a place both physically and emotionally, yet having a home also creates self actualization through jobs, education, and health services which helps all of us as individuals reach our potential.

Potential that is necessary for adults and especially for children to grow into adults that will benefit both themselves and society. Physiological needs such as air, water, and food, clothing, and shelter are literal needs for human survival, but until all these physical needs are met including safety, security, financial, and personal which is the next level then and only then will everything else fall into place such as friendship, intimacy, family, and then motivation which is the aspiration for employment, furthering an education, and empowerment. Aspiration that I personally witnessed in my daughter as she grew into a young woman who dreamed of working as a hair stylist. I remember her daily trips from Revere, MA to Salem, MA via the MBTA bus and then from Salem, MA to Middleton, MA via the school bus to attend school at the North Shore Technical High School; somehow my daughter kept the pace of these daily travels for almost a year until we moved back to Salem, MA permanently. It was in her own room that was painted pink with her personal items decorating her shelves and her walls where I know my young daughter developed motivation and succeeded in her dream of working at a salon and attaining her Massachusetts State License because her potential was fulfilled in a place called home.

American families need a place to call home, a permanent place to live so everything else like jobs, education, and health services will follow. When an individuals needs are met then and only then are they able to meet the needs of others. Most importantly, their needs being met leads to success for themselves and for us all. True success will be achieved when homeless families have housing that is affordable and a real home where their hearts reside.

Read More:

http://www.sparechangenews.net/news/home-where-heart

http://www.homesforfamilies.org/
http://www.headinghomeinc.org/