Housing

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  A Fallen Economy

  Mother: Ashley O
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  Asleep on the Street

  Mother: Erica S
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  Burned and Abandoned House

  Mother: Whitney H

  "The house caught on fire one day and our porch caught fire, too. A lot of abandoned houses [have] been catching fire in the city and it’s destroying other people homes."

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  Another Burned House

  Mother: Whitney H
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  A Deteriorating Ceiling

  Mother: Whitney H

  "I took a picture of this because I was just showing the water damage. You got landlords where they don’t wanna come out and do work on your house, and then you have this. You have your ceiling falling in because you run your shower and you go to get in the tub and you have water damage and it’s coming through the ceiling."

   

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  Abandoned Home

  Mother: Whitney H
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  Abandoned Houses

  Mother: Whitney H

   

  "You have all these homes and millions and millions of people living in shelters and you’re saying there’s no housing but you have all these abandoned homes going to waste."

   

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  Leaks

  Mother: Tianna G
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  My neighbor's kitchen

  Mother: Barbie I

  You never know what goes on behind closed doors.  Some people need to know exactly how we’re living being single moms, being that we’re on our own and we don’t have that many opportunities.  When something breaks, we may not be able to fix it because we have limited income.  It’s really hard to try to get everything fixed. […] How would my neighbor actually try to work with something like that?  Being in a situation like that, your kids can stay hungry.

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  Crowding

  Mother: Tamika H
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  Chipping bathtub

  Mother: Tamika H

  Once again, you need money and a lot of stuff to fix up your house. My kids could get sick from that--that’s mold.

   

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  Back taxes

  Mother: Crystal S

  That’s a foreclosure notice with the amount on it. After my mom died I thought she was paying taxes, but then I got a notice in the mail that says $3,000… almost $4,000 owed in back taxes. Now, the city has a nice way of saying even though you've been dwelling in this house for however long, we won’t help you.

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  Home repairs

  Mother: Crystal S

  Try to work with what you have. So many people live beyond their means. You can't say, "I’m living in this house and it’s a piece of crap and nothing works."  Try to empower yourself to fix something or to do something. There’s things that you can do yourself just to improve the quality of life around you. 

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  Weatherizing the windows

  Mother: Crystal S

   I was caulking the windows so this picture shows how it looked before it started, like the big cracks on the seams of the windows and then once I filled them in.  Trying to weatherize the house, getting it ready for winter to reduce  my gas bill.

   

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  Crumbling bathroom

  Mother: Janelle R

  That’s  a picture of my bathroom in my house. I just took a picture of that because I’m getting sick and tired of it looking like that… I just wish that I had some money so I could help to get it fixed.

   

   

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  Broken shower

  Mother: Janelle R

  That’s the tub, I took a picture of that because that’s a problem for me because like I can’t take a shower there; I have to wash up out of a sink. My mom's boyfriend has the money to get it fixed but he doesn’t want to get it fixed.

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  Bathing in the sink

  Mother: Janelle R

  I can’t wash up out of a tub… I can’t take a shower every day like normal people; I have to wash up out of the sink. That’s the sink. Also, I have to put my kids inside the sink and wash them up. At least we do have hot water and running water… it could be worse.

   

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  Crowding

  Mother: Janelle R

  That’s the bed. Do you see where the red sheet is at? I sleep on that side, my sister sleeps on the other side. And before, when my son was younger, it was me, my son, and her all sleeping in that bed.

   

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  Ceiling repairs

  Mother: Janelle R

  That’s the ceiling in the bedroom, and actually it fell down from the snow last winter. My kids’ dad, he came over and fixed it up but it still is not safe. It [worries me] a lot. I want to actually go into a shelter, but right now I’m on a waiting list for a shelter. 

   

   

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  Locked door

  Mother: Janelle R

  I really don’t think he wants any of us there, I especially don’t really think he wants me.  He only wants his family there. He only cares about him and himself and his family.  That’s actually an extra room in the house that he keeps locked. Nobody can use that room and all his special stuff is in there.