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Did you know that families with young children are one of the most likely groups to experience homelessness? Being a new parent is hard enough – it’s nearly impossible when you don’t have stable housing. This week Gloria’s talking to Kate Barrand, who runs Horizons for Homeless Children, an organization in Boston providing quality childcare and early education to unhoused families. They’re doing incredible work, and Kate has some powerful insights into what it takes  to help families find stability. Then Gloria talks to Caitlin Liversidge, a new mother in San Francisco who found herself unhoused and pregnant last summer, about what it took for her to make it through pregnancy and find stability.

Special thanks to our partners who have made this season possible!

This series is produced with Neighborhood Villages. Neighborhood Villages is a Massachusetts-based systems change nonprofit. It envisions a transformed, equitable early childhood education system that lifts up educators and sets every child and family up to thrive. In pursuit of this vision, Neighborhood Villages designs, evaluates, and scales innovative solutions to the biggest challenges faced by early childhood education providers and the children and families who rely on them, and drives policy reform through advocacy, education, and research. Visit www.neighborhoodvillages.org to learn more.

This season was made possible with generous support from Imaginable Futures, a global philanthropic investment firm working with partners to build more healthy and equitable systems, so that everyone has the opportunity to learn and realize the future they imagine. Learn more at www.imaginablefutures.com.

This series is presented by The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation.

This series is presented by the Bainum Family Foundation. Through their WeVision EarlyEd initiative, they are elevating the voices of families and early childhood professionals, their “proximity experts,” to generate equitable and practical solutions to make the ideal vision of child care in America real. You can learn more at wevisionearlyed.org.

This season is presented by The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, an organization working to improve the lives of individuals living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage throughout the world. Learn more at hiltonfoundation.org.

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Old Recording, Gloria Riviera, Caitlin, Kate

Old Recording  00:39

According to new federal data, a record number of people are now unhoused, more than 653,000 a 12% population increase since last year when I signed up for Section eight and low income housing. I did not feel that I will be on that list for 12 years. I’m 60 years old. I work 35 years I’m a college graduate. I have no record, and I sleep on the sidewalk.

 

Gloria Riviera  02:55

653,104 Americans experienced homelessness last year, 653,104 we are in the middle of a historic housing crisis, and unfortunately, families with young children are one of the groups most likely to become unhoused. It makes a grim kind of sense. Starting a family is one of the most vulnerable moments in your life. It’s expensive, it’s emotionally challenging, and it can easily pitch you into housing insecurity. And once you’re unhoused, it’s really difficult to get back on your feet. Being a new parent is hard, and being unhoused is hard. Imagine dealing with both at the same time. It’s a classic catch 22 you need a really solid job to pay for housing and child care, but if you don’t have housing and child care, how are you supposed to find the time and energy to get a solid job? I’m Gloria Rivera, and this is No One Is Coming To Save Us a podcast about the child care crisis in America. This week, we’re looking at the nearly impossible realities that too many young families face when they are unhoused. And first, we’re checking in with someone fighting against the epidemic of family homelessness in Boston, Massachusetts. Hello there.

 

Kate  04:28

Hi, Gloria, how are you?

 

Gloria Riviera  04:30

I’m well, thanks. How are you, Kate?

 

Kate  04:32

Very well. Nice to see you as well.

 

04:35

Kate Barrand is the president and CEO of Horizons for Homeless Children, founded in 1988 they provide quality child care and education to 230 unhoused children in the Boston area. They also have a network of volunteer run play spaces at housing shelters across the state. Kate’s been involved with horizons for decades, so she knows a lot about how. And why families become unhoused. Can you speak a little bit about why you think this country with over 650,000 Americans experiencing homelessness last year? How did we get here?

 

Kate  05:16

I think there’s a lot of underlying economics that tell that story, and what I can tell you is, when I first was on the board of horizons, domestic violence was the leading driver, right? And what we’ve seen over the course of the last 30 years is that prices have risen dramatically in terms of affordable housing and all you know what you pay for bread and butter and everything else. But you know what? Wages in America for most workers have stayed very largely flat, and so in a city like Boston, we kind of have a perfect storm for family homelessness. So we have a $15 minimum wage, and that’s what most families in poverty are living at, and a $45 living wage. So right there, you’ve got a math problem, right? I would have to have, you know, two and a half full time jobs at minimum wage to have a living wage. We are the third most expensive rental market in the country. 28% of the children in Boston are living in poverty and we have a deficit of affordable housing. Those are the economics that are driving family homelessness now.

 

Gloria Riviera  06:30

We know that it’s also very hard for young parents who experience homelessness. One of the biggest risk factors for homelessness is having a child. Can you walk me through that? Because I stopped at that, and I thought, Okay, wait, how you know, you see the word risk, and you see the phrase having kids, and it just, I guess it’s just not something I want to read or accept. But can you explain it to me?

 

Kate  06:59

I can explain a little, and I can also tell you that the people in this country, and this is in the New York Times, most likely to be evicted are children, are babies and toddlers with a parent. And what I can tell you is I did a little bit of research on this over the course of time. And first of all, landlords, by and large, not big fans of children. Children are noisy, children are messy. Children can be hard on apartments, right? They draw on walls. I mean, they’re children, right? What I can also tell you is that when a parent has a child, it introduces a whole set of expenses that they may not have really been prepared for. Children obviously need clothes and they need food and they need medical care. You probably thought having a child was just a beautiful thing, but then there come the consequences of it’s very hard to find childcare in Massachusetts, and it’s extremely expensive, but it’s a difficult equation for a young family with young children.

 

Gloria Riviera  08:01

So tell me who the average client is for horizon. What does it look like when you look around at those 200 plus kids and who are you seeing?

 

Kate  08:11

So generally speaking, our parents are often single moms in their late 20s. They probably have an income of between nine and $11,000.

 

Gloria Riviera  08:24

Wow, that’s, I did not think you were going to cite numbers that low.

 

Kate  08:28

Yeah, that’s the average. And not only that, but what we see is, oftentimes, they have no social support system, so they can be estranged from their families, or they can have been forced to move away from where their family unit or social supports are because they needed shelter, and shelter happened to be somewhere else. They have no support system, and they have no savings, so they’re literally living on the edge. It just introduces a highly toxic level of stress into their environment. And one of the things that I would love to change in this country is we keep blaming the poor for being poor, and it is not their fault. It is the fault of systemic issues that we have. Some of it is racism. Some of it is classism. I mean, we are the problem. The poor are not the problem. We have many stories of beautiful, capable, resilient human beings with nothing but the best intentions for their children, trapped in this, what I would call fringe existence.

 

09:43

And making it out of that fringe existence takes a lot of work. That’s why horizons opened a new state of the art childcare center in 2021 one that would serve all the needs of their students and their families. Their program is. Really impressive. In fact, it’s in the top 5% of programs statewide.

 

Kate  10:06

We have an early childhood program here that serves 230 children. So imagine the most state of the art childcare facility you might have ever seen, and then add a little bit, because we only built it three years ago, and we truly built it to be an example of the best possible state of the art solution for early childhood education. And it’s also built with the intent to lift families up who are experiencing homelessness. So we have 22 classrooms and 230 children who come here every day, all year long, to get services and to learn. We have an extraordinary literacy program and library. We’ve got seven different language and 3000 books in the library. We want them, as we say, school ready and ready to truly be exceptional. And that’s what our program is designed to do. So that’s what we do in our early education program. But we have also, any child who comes here, their parent gets a coach, and that coach works with the parent who is so important also to the child’s development, right and growth. We work with a parent on how can we help you achieve your dreams and get you socially and emotionally settled and also on a path towards economic sustainability.

 

11:27

When they were designing the Early Learning Center horizons, realized that when folks are trapped in deep poverty, they need to access a lot of social services, and much of the time that means parents have to get on the bus, to get around all day trying to make it to each office and appointment on time to get the resources they need. So horizons decided we’re going to have all those resources in one place. Their Early Learning Center has a medical clinic, it has English classes, it has people who can help you find a job. It is a one stop shop, and that makes a huge difference for families on their way to housing stability.

 

Kate  12:09

It’s about giving people back their humanity. I mean, we should be responding to them in a way that is gracious and dignified, like, you know they’re people, and you know, no one picks to be homeless, no one picks to lose their housing and not be able to provide for their child. It’s the last thing on earth they’d ever want to do.

 

12:32

Kate, I have to tell you, it’s really lovely to hear you speak about treating people with dignity and grace and where you see the real fundamental problem, you know, living which is not in these people, but in the system that they are forced to live in. So thank you so much for the work that you do and your time with us today.

 

Kate  12:54

Thank you.

 

Gloria Riviera  12:56

Organizations like Horizons for Homeless Children work because they recognize that people experiencing homelessness are not the problem. The rising costs of housing and childcare, along with decades of stagnant wages, are the problem. These are social issues we’re talking about, and they need social solutions. We are going to take a quick break when we come back, we’re going to head across the country from Boston to San Francisco and talk to a woman who just made it out of homelessness herself with a newborn baby in tow.

 

Gloria Riviera  16:35

Caitlin Liversidge is a new mother living in San Francisco, and Last summer she went through one of the most difficult experiences I can imagine, finding out she was pregnant right before losing her housing.

 

Caitlin  16:49

Homelessness doesn’t always look like the person that’s dirty and then on drugs or, you know, it’s me right now, sitting here with my baby.

 

Gloria Riviera  16:57

Oh, and before I forget, we had another very special guest join us. Caitlin’s two and a half month old. Lola, […] Thank you, baby girl. Oh, my God, okay, wow. I did not know I was gonna have that strong reaction to see.

 

Caitlin  17:23

She’s pretty precious.

 

Gloria Riviera  17:25

Yes, she is.

 

Caitlin  17:26

She just wants to see everything. She wants to look at everybody. And, yeah, she’s just, she’s a really sweet girl.

 

17:32

Caitlin’s originally from Australia. She came to the States in her 20s, lured here by the music and fashion scenes in New York. She made some friends from California and ended up moving to San Francisco, expensive. But up until the last few years, Caitlin was doing pretty well for herself.

 

Caitlin  17:51

You know, I was living just outside of, like the hate Ashbury, and you know, I had a good job. I was a manager for, like, a health food company.

 

Gloria Riviera  17:58

But during the pandemic, things took a turn for the worse.

 

Caitlin  18:02

My relationship was just on and off, and then fell into a lot of, like, heavy drinking patterns, and it just kind of like all unraveled, like, from there, I couldn’t keep my head above water, and then also I got hit in the end of 2022 I got hit by a car, and I broke my arm really badly, and that was the pinnacle of the bad. I couldn’t work because I was in hospitality, you know, and then I didn’t have health insurance, and it was just that was the pinnacle of like, Fuck, this is bad.

 

18:33

And just as everything was falling apart, Caitlin started noticing changes in her body. Her breasts were tender. She felt nauseous around certain smells. Oh, God. She took a pregnancy test, it was positive, and she had to tell the guy she was seeing, who she’d recently moved in with. At first, he seemed excited, but that didn’t last.

 

Caitlin  18:56

Basically, like, cut a long story short, is that, like, he started to question that if it was his, you know, and I’m living with the man, but apparently it’s not his.

 

Gloria Riviera  19:05

Oh, my God. And then all of a sudden, you’re on the street. What happened there?

 

Caitlin  19:09

So you also told me that it was transferring to Vegas. I don’t want to be with you. Like, basically threw, like, the house keys in my face, and that was it. And just like, my packed up his stuff and left. And after that, I have the landlords coming over and banging on the door and stuff. Okay? And he told me that he’s five months behind in the rent. Oh, great, thank you. And I have a bit of money saved up, but that, you know, that was like, not that much. That’s going to come.

 

Gloria Riviera  19:40

About five months of rent, yeah.

 

Caitlin  19:43

And then I didn’t have enough money to continue paying the rent, and a lot of my friends have moved away. Some have started families and too expensive to raise a family in San Francisco. So yeah, basically, I kind of like exhausted people that I couldn’t stay with.

 

Gloria Riviera  20:00

Okay, so what did that look like to be homeless? I mean, where were you charging your phone? What did your day to day routine look like?

 

Caitlin  20:08

I’ve had nights. I’ve had multiple nights where I had to sleep like on the street, like in a park or something like that. And, I mean, I didn’t have that many positions. I had to charge my phone at the whole foods and, and like, you know, I just, you’d sleep clutching, you know, my things, the little things that I had, you know, and.

 

Gloria Riviera  20:28

I’m imagining you on the street and you need prenatal care. Is that a small thing? How did you get that?

 

Caitlin  20:37

Basically, I’ve researched, like, you know, women’s shelters and, like prenatal care, like stuff like that. And then I saw HPP, which is Homeless Prenatal program.

 

Gloria Riviera  20:48

Homeless Prenatal program runs the transitional housing site where Caitlin was living during this interview, that program is called Jelani house. More on them later.

 

Caitlin  20:58

I just cold and cold. And then I I remember distinctly, it was really warm day here with San Francisco. So it was like 80 degrees, and I was sitting downtown somewhere where I could get Wi Fi on my phone, because I, you know, I couldn’t pay my phone bills, so I had to just rely on Wi Fi. So I was missing calls, you know, from from possible places or shelters. And I got a phone call because I was in Wi Fi, it was like, I’m calling from Homeless Prenatal program. And I told her my situation, and I was out in a big kind of courtyard, like near where they’re, like, Twitter building is, and people were on their lunch break, and they’re like, you know, like people with really high paying job, like techies, the people that you know, kind of run San Francisco right now, and and I’m on this phone call, and I’m emotional and I’m like, and I was so embarrassed because everyone could hear my conversation, but I had to be somewhere where I could have Wi Fi and.

 

21:49

Caitlin had a shot at a place to live while she was pregnant, giving birth and raising her baby. Only one problem, she had to make it to an office across town in the next two hours, and she didn’t have a car five o’clock.

 

Caitlin  22:03

And then it just so happened. And again, I feel like the world works in we are saying mysterious ways, but a lady that was next to me, she was like, and I could see her, like, looking at me during the conversation, and I was like, you know, trying to not make eye contact after the phone call, like she said, like, I’m really, you know, wasn’t really eavesdropping, but I got snippets of their conversation. And I just want to let you know that I work for, like, the public health system, and I’m like, so sorry about to hear about your situation. And she’s like, I have can know a lot of resources that can help you. And she’s like, I heard you say, Jelani, how she’s like, that’s a really great place for, you know, for pregnant women. And like, she offered to pay for my Uber, and she gave me her like number and like a list of resources for, like, prenatal care and stuff.

 

Gloria Riviera  22:46

Incredible, someone’s sitting next to you and says, Wait a minute, I work in public health, and we need to get you over to the access point.

 

Caitlin  22:54

Right, and I was like, I can’t. Thank you enough. And she was like, no, no. She’s like, it’s okay. She’s like, I’m so sorry. She’s like, I have two kids, and I did raise the second one by myself. She’s like, I understand it’s difficult.

 

Gloria Riviera  23:08

With the help of this Good Samaritan, Caitlyn made it to where she needed to go, and when she got there, sure enough, there was a room waiting for her at Jelani house. More on that after the break.

 

23:35

Tell me what it was like to walk through the doors of Jelani house knowing you had a safe place to be a bed waiting for you at that moment, it was going to be okay.

 

Caitlin  25:23

I just remember coming in, and it’s a lovely facility. It’s super clean, it’s really big, open spaces. There’s a nice backyard. It’s bright, it’s it is a really nice welcoming space.

 

Gloria Riviera  25:37

Like I mentioned earlier, Jelani house is a transitional housing complex for unhoused pregnant people. It’s run by a San Francisco nonprofit called Homeless Prenatal program. Jelani reminds me a lot of the programs at Horizons for Homeless Children in Boston, but more focused on the specific challenges of being unhoused and pregnant or with a newborn, they offer their clients a safe place to stay for up to two years, help them get pre and postnatal care and work with them to make sure they and their babies find permanent housing. They have quarterly baby showers, parenting classes and even baby photo shoots.

 

Caitlin  26:18

And opening that door to my tiny little bedroom, which I’ve made it very much our little home for now. And I sat on that bed and I cried. I cried like I hadn’t cried in a long time. And it was like, it’s nice. They give you like a robe, they give you slippers, they give you like toiletries. That shower was the best shower of my life. You know that sleep was probably the best sleep of my life. And, like, it was just, I think I, like, kissed the pillow, or, you know, something, you know, super, what were those super corny.

 

Gloria Riviera  26:49

What were those tears about? Do you think now that you’ve had time to think back about that first, that first hour alone in your room?

 

Caitlin  26:58

I think just, yeah, just relief, you know, just a really sense of of relief and just of being somewhere safe and not feeling like, yeah, I have to, you know, watch my back all the time and clutch my purse and knowing that I’m going to be like, in a place where I can cook meals and make a nice smoothie for me and her and like, and get my prenatal vitamins, and go into groups with other mothers, and learning about, you know, not just about nutrition, about labor, about, you know, all those things. I mean, I’ve never, I’ve never, of course, I’ve never been in that position, you know, just making sure and just like, just always knowing that I can come back to somewhere safe and that I have support.

 

Gloria Riviera  27:40

All that support meant that when Lola was ready to be born, Caitlin was ready too. And two and a half months later, things keep getting better. Is she in your lap? Yeah? Maybe No, but I can see the way you’re looking at her, which is, oh, she just has those closed eyes. She’s just so at peace. And Caitlin, I have to say, like at times, this story has been harrowing, but you strike me as someone who’s at peace too. What is the future hold for you?

 

Caitlin  28:09

Well, we, we actually got a last month. Are you smiling? What’s happening?

 

Gloria Riviera  28:15

No, she’s waiting for the good news. She’s happy about whatever it is you’re going to tell me.

 

Caitlin  28:19

Oh yeah. Well, so last month, I actually got my voucher and my subsidies for housing. So I will be I’ve been looking at apartments, and I will probably be out of here in a month. We’ll have our own apartment.

 

Gloria Riviera  28:32

Isn’t that amazing? One of the big focuses at Jelani house is helping their residents find permanent housing. It’s only a matter of time before Caitlin and Lola have a new home, hopefully when they can stay in for a long, long time. You know, Lola is sleeping so peacefully, and you strike me as someone who’s at peace as well. But maybe what I should say is, and this, as I think about it, seems more apt. You strike me as someone who has found that peace is out there in some capacity, whether it’s housing or, you know, eventually a job and your own place, that there, there is that same moment where you cried on your bed when you first got to John Lyons, there’s peace out there for you.

 

Caitlin  29:19

Yeah, no, most definitely. And I think, like, obviously, she’s, you know, the biggest part of that she saved me, you know, she saved me. And I’m sorry. I just like, I just, you know, I just look at her, and I’m just like, I just, I can do everything I can in my power to, like, to make sure she’s okay and that she’ll be loved. And you know, again, like this is only temporary, you know, and I know that we’ll get the apartment, I’ll go back to work, and she’s given me, like, a whole different reason and a whole different perspective. And I feel like, in the past, more I’ve been more like, I’ll say yes to. Things or let kind of people push me over. And now I’m just like, No, I am more selfish now, but I’m selfish for her.

 

Gloria Riviera  30:07

I think another word for that is purpose.

 

Caitlin  30:09

Purpose, right? And you know, she is, she’s my she’s my purpose. She’s my everything. And you know, waking up to her like is the best thing. Her smile, and she’s just I just try and, you know, even though there’s been so much pain and chaos and and stuff in my life and in my life with her inside me and stuff like, I don’t want my baby to feel that I’m just, it’s just so blessed to be her mom.

 

Gloria Riviera  30:39

If we can build the right kind of safety net. Stories like Caitlin’s can have happy endings. I’m very grateful that organizations like Horizons for Homeless Children in Boston and Homeless Prenatal programs Jelani house in San Francisco are doing such amazing work, but they really shouldn’t have to. We’re the richest country in the world, and we have pregnant people and children living on the street. How absolutely insane is that? How shameful. But if there’s a glimmer of hope here, it’s that we do know how to solve the problem, or at least make it a lot easier for people going through it. We just need to take programs that work, like the two we’ve talked about today, and expand them until they reach folks all across the country. Let’s make it happen. I’m going to leave you on that high note. We’ll see you next week for our episode on climate change and children’s health.

 

CREDITS  31:54

There’s more No one Is Coming To Save Us with Lemonada premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content, like unheard clips from our interviews. Subscribe now on Apple podcasts. No One Is Coming To Save us is a Lemonada, original produced with Neighborhood Villages. I’m your host, Gloria Riviera. Crystal Genesis is our senior producer, Tony Williams and Tiffany Bui are our producers. Additional editing on this episode by Rachel Pilgrim. Tony Williams, Johnny Vince Evans are our audio engineers. Our music is by Hannis Brown. Jackie Danziger is our VP of narrative content. Executive producers are Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer, along with me Gloria Riviera. The series is presented by Imaginable Futures, the J Willard and Alice S Marriott Foundation, The Banhum Family Foundation and The Conrad N Hilton foundation. If you like the show and you believe what we’re doing is important, please help others find us by leaving us a rating and writing a review, and most importantly, tell your friends follow No One Is Coming To Save Us wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership, thanks for listening, and we’ll be back next week. Until then, hang in there. You can do this.