Case Study #2: Home Sweet Home

pstrongMarie's* Story/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby PNN/p pThe darkness was closing in; the night had settled, and we werebr / safe in our car, it was home for us. Like always, it was just me and mybr / daughter. I helped her get comfortable, I nestled her into the fewbr / blankets that we had. It was still summertime, so the cold weather hadn'tbr / descended on us yet, but nights in Marin can always be a little chilly,br / especially without the comforts of four solid walls around you. We werebr / doing just fine though, in our little hatchback, probably a lot better thanbr / most families on the streets. At least we were together, my daughter andbr / I; at least we had that much stability./p pIn the land of exorbitant rents and senseless evictions by greedybr / landlords, I thought I was getting by in the best way that I could. Sobr / many other people, with or without children, were getting pushed out ofbr / their homes and out of the community only because they were poor, becausebr / they couldn't keep up with the ever- rising cost of living. Not everyonebr / is a dotcommer around here, but soon they will be, now that all of thebr / money being made by those huge corporations is driving up rent and drivingbr / out the little people. It is money that is never seen by anyone outside ofbr / those big businesses, money that never makes it down to street level, andbr / the more expensive everything in this area becomes, the more people findbr / themselves on the streets because there is simply no where else to go.br / Before long, there won't be any such thing as diversity in this area,br / because every neighborhood will be filled with the rich upper-class./p pWell, I might not have the resume to get some high- paying job, butbr / that doesn't make me a bad parent. I provided for my daughter, but somehowbr / being poor made me a criminal, too, in the eyes of C.P.S. One day we werebr / just getting by, making the best of a hard situation, and the next thing Ibr / knew, we were forced out of our car, I was thrown in jail and my daughterbr / was taken from me, to where, I still don't know. As far as the court wasbr / concerned, I was probably better off in a cell as long as I wasn't livingbr / in my car anymore. But suddenly, it wasn't shelter or stability that I wasbr / missing, it was my child, and that left me with a feeling far worse thanbr / homelessness ever did./p pSince when is it against the law to be without money or a home? Ifbr / that is really the case, then our jails should be overflowing by now.br / Instead of criminalizing poverty, our government officials should be aidingbr / families in need to find the resources that are available to assist them,br / or creating more resources if necessary. Instead they waste money onbr / court cases against people like me who really just need some help./p pSo now, all that is left is for me to go to court, to stand up inbr / front of a judge who doesn't know me and a prosecutor who wants to convictbr / me, and try to prove that I can still be a good mother to my child. If Ibr / am lucky they will return my daughter to me and give us the assistance thatbr / we need to survive in an area that can be hostile for low- income families.br / But even if they do, it won't erase the experience of being separated frombr / her. Nothing can do that, not even the biggest house in the neighborhoodbr / and all of the money in the world./p p*iNames changed to protect identity/i/p pb***CourtWatch Response***/b/p pThe process through which POOR Magazine Media Studies staff andbr / welfare-to-work students helped Marie, mother of a three-year-old child, asbr / part of a CourtWatch project, started when Dee found a two-inch articlebr / about her hidden inside the San Francisco Examiner. She showed it to Tinybr / because she found it noteworthy, especially because of the way that Mariebr / was instantly labeled as not only homeless, but also mentally ill.br / According to the article, Marie had been jailed for trying to take herbr / child back from C.P.S. Dee felt the need to assist her due to the commentsbr / made in the article, which put up all kinds of red flags in terms of thebr / labeling used by C.P.S. as a means of denying a parent custody of theirbr / children./p pAttempts to find Marie, including calling C.P.S., the court, andbr / the jail, all proved difficult and fruitless. Finally the POOR staff foundbr / Marie's attorney. We contacted him and also sent a letter to Marie throughbr / his office. After finding out from the criminal court when Marie wasbr / scheduled to appear, the staff attended her court date. Our reporters werebr / also able to interview her attorney and probation officer, and consequentlybr / reviewed and wrote up their impressions of everyone involved in Marie'sbr / case, including the judge and Marie herself. Although Marie was supposedlybr / restricted from having visitors at the jail, Dee and Tiny were allowed inbr / to see her. It was obvious that Marie needed a lot of help./p pPOOR Magazine contacted Marie's attorney one more time to offer ourbr / help advocating for her, although it was clear that she needed assistancebr / beyond the staff's capabilities. Since he could not release any morebr / information, like the court reports, to us, POOR was even more limited inbr / what we could offer to do for Marie. The solution was to send her, throughbr / her attorney, a list we compiled of various resources available to her inbr / the area in which she was staying, including services for homeless familiesbr / and the mentally ill, shelters and transitional housing, food vouchers andbr / meals, and employment and childcare services./p pIf we receive any updates about this case or others like it, youbr / will find them included in future CourtWatch columns./p p /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p