It takes money to get a job & the working homeless by CK

It takes money to get a job

**40 to 60% of homeless have a full time or part time job. In my county in Kentucky, to afford the average cost of rent of over $600/month, the affordability requires a person to work 40 hours per week at $12.78/hr.**

Do you even know the people that exist in your community? I see a trend in mine, where single grandmothers or Aunts are taking custody of their daughter, son, or sister's kids. I see lots of addiction taking hold of adults which can render them jobless, then homeless, then lose custody of children. Do you know what you get when you're homeless? 

As a homeless person, you may be able to get SNAP benefits, but only if you have an address of where your mail can go and only if you have a reference saying they can vouch for you that you have no income. You can go to a soup kitchen, there's some places that give out free food or free clothes, but what kind of food and clothes does that look like for someone that's homeless? Clothes for someone that's homeless must be selective as to not carry too much or leave their belongings all in one spot. Clothes get dirty easy, you have to have lots of showers and hygiene items in order to "clean up" for a job. Certainly though, you can be homeless and have a good paying job. There's people that do that living in their car. 

Going back to food as a homeless person, can you even eat ramen without a stove or microwave? Maybe you can cook ramen in the sun...Lots of restaurants and city ordinances state you cannot dumpster dive for food or finds. In my town, the soup kitchen shut down. You can get into a shelter that may have a housing program. But the homeless shelter in my town, requires a background check which may take some time to come back. And to get into income based housing, you may need a social security card, birth certificate, award letters, bank statements, credit reports, references, etc. As mentioned, access to hygiene, clothing and food, other barriers for homeless include: education, skills, addiction, rehabilitation, transportation, bus schedules, phone, and of course money.

It takes money to get a job. You have to look good to be able to get to the job; you have to have a phone; you have to be well fed so you can function; you have to have skills and at least a GED. All these things requires lots of money. And barriers for homeless people usually keeps them from being able to access these necessary things to make money, get housing, or get a job. These are our essentials to live.

But these essentials become too hard to live for when the barriers consume us, the homeless, the isolated. We have to fight for ourselves and others to create the communities we want to see. Invision a community that fosters equity, love, resources, and safe spaces--so do your research and do it! We cannot wait for someone else to do it for us!