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Homeless in Hollywood
| Article
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18024 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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5 / 1990 |
2,271 Words |
| Author
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Deborah Kaye
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Being a mom is never easy. It's even tougher if you're a singly parent. But imagine trying to cope when you're also homeless.
The stereotypical notion that homeless people are alcoholic or mentally ill is rapidly being replaced by a different view. Mothers with children make up the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. Many live in campgrounds, rundown motels, and automobiles. They move from shelter to shelter or stay with a succession of relatives in rooms with wall-to-wall mattresses. They live under bridges and in abandoned buildings.
Ethel S. was one of these moms. The personable young woman and her two children, Anthony, eight, and Jennifer, three, became homeless after she left her alcoholic husband. They lived with friends and relatives, and then in a motel. "It was the hardest time in my life,” she admits.
But help came when Ethel heard about the Family Assistance Program of Hollywood (FAP), an organization whose goal is to help some of the estimated ten thousand homeless people in Tinseltown - twenty-five hundred of whom are a children - get back onto their feet and into their own homes. "Once a week we have a meeting called Foundations, which I love," Ethel exclaims. "We talk about topics like child abuse, alcoholism, how to treat yourself. We talk about things I needed to know, like why my life had fallen to pieces."
Counselors helped Ethel deal with her son's resentment toward her about the way they were living. FAP staff also helped her overcome some of the stumbling blocks to finding work, by teaching her how to phone for and appointment, fill out an application, and interview for a job.
Through the program, Ethel found a two-bedroom apartment and enrolled in auto mechanics school. "I came every day. They helped me pull myself together," she says enthusiastically.
The program's philosophy encourages people to play active roles in changing their lives. Counselors have helped build Ethel's confidence in her capacity to take control of her situation and deal with crises. "It's like a little family here," she says.
'Go And Do Good'
The head of this "family" is director M. Patricia Shelhamer. An energetic, distinguished looking woman, she and three of her friends formed the nonprofit corporation in 1984 after another friend gave them a fifty-thousand-dollar contribution and said, "Go and do good." The first thing they did was help some families set up in their own apartments.
FAP now has seven paid staff members and thirty-five volunteers. The organization operates out of a run-down office building on Hollywood Boulevard, just blocks from the famous Mann's Chinese Theater.
Shelhamer has the heart - although not the training - of a social worker. She studied international relations and worked for the State Department for many years. Then she dabbled in real estate and silver mining. Her next job was as a church administrator in Hollywood, where she saw that Tinseltown's glamorous image belied its stark realities.
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