We’ve all seen the homeless wandering the streets. We’ve all been asked for money and wondered whether or not we should give it and if the beggar was being truthful. We’ve even wondered how someone who looks as healthy as us can be in a situation like this or even thought “why don’t they just get a job?”
But what about the families who are homeless with a job? This is a story about a young mother of 4 children who is homeless with a job. Kimberly Payton a Chicago Resident who lives in South Shore has been homeless with her 4 children for over a year. To The ‘least’ of These campaign Partner Lashondra Graves met Kimberly a year ago at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church of Chicago and Kim opened up to her and told her story. One year later once To The ‘least’ of These Campaign was up and running Kimberly’s story hadn’t changed. She and her 4 young children ages 11-4 were still homeless, but Kimberly has a job.
Kimberly shared with To The ‘least’ of These Partners Zaricor and Lillie Jackson and Lashondra Graves that she was still living in a shelter and never shared her story with her church. She told us of the late nights crying and looking at her children, but waking up with a smile for them. She has been a member of her church for a year and she said after trying everything else she wanted to try God, because she couldn’t do it anymore. She no longer had the strength to watch her children sleeping knowing there was no light to the end of the tunnel they are in. We have to ask ourselves “how can this be?” How can a family of 5 be homeless in Chicago for 1 year and the mother works making a little over minimum wage? Here is the problem.
The housing market in Chicago has reached a point where the residents making minimum wage or even a little more cannot afford to pay rent. A study by CCH shows 116,042 Chicagoans were homeless in the course of the 2012-13 school year. The Illinois State Board of Education says public schools identified 51,638 homeless students in the 2012-13 school year, up 8% in a year. Three of Kimberly’s children are part of that 51,638 homeless children in the Chicago Public School System.
How do we tackle a problem this big? One family at a time. We interviewed Kimberly on video and she was humble enough to share her story with the world in hopes that she can help another family who is going through the same problem. You can find her video at totheleastofthese.weebly.com.
To The ‘least’ of These is a campaign focused on helping homeless children and children living in poverty have a higher quality of living. Our vehicle to get this help to children is through “Backpacks 4 Life.” These packs are filled with living essentials for children and the items are based on the recipients’ location. Kimberly’s 4 children were the first recipients of the Backpacks 4 Life, but after doing research on her situation we decided to take her problem a step further.
We are running a campaign to raise $10,000 to help Kimberly and her children. The $10,000 will pay a portion of Kimberly’s rent for a year and buy beds and bedding for the unit. During that year Kimberly will pay $500 of the rent amount every month and attend monthly meetings with To The ‘least’ of These Campaign mangers to help her learn great budgeting skills, train her for works skills and to help her land a better job that will give her the affordability to pay rent and other bills. 100% of the money raised during this Campaign is going towards Kimberly’s year long project to become self-sustained.
Kimberly’s story is not unlike stories from families in Chicago for the past 29 years. Between 1985-1988 the Chicago Tribune wrote over 1500 stories on the homeless crisis in Chicago. One of our Campaign Partners Lashondra Graves and her family were one of the families in those stories during that time. We have to ask ourselves “why haven’t this problem changed in over 29 years?” Maybe we will never understand the answer to that question, but we can start making a change one family at a time today.
We will actively run this campaign to raise the money for Kimberly and her family for 4 weeks. Every week we will post how much money we have raised and how much more we need. Once we reach our goal, we will document Kimberly’s progress, from looking for a unit to live in to her monthly meetings. At the end of this year our goal is for Kimberly and her family to be self-sustained.
We can’t do this without your help. A donation as small as $10 can help Kimberly and her family get off the streets and give her children a chance at a stable life and the American Dream. People think the American Dream is a house, a car, a dog and a white picket fence, but the real American Dream is being able to dream at all.
To find out more about our campaign visit our website at totheleastofthese.weebly.com. We can’t make a difference without you!
View Kimberly’s story here.
You can also view the original story about the number of homeless families in Chicago here http://totheleastofthese.weebly.com/1/previous/2.html
Thank you from Zaricor Jackson, Lillie Jackson and Lashondra Graves
You can also donate here by making a check or money order to To The 'least' of These Campaign and mailing it here:
PO Box 4891
Downey California 90241
But what about the families who are homeless with a job? This is a story about a young mother of 4 children who is homeless with a job. Kimberly Payton a Chicago Resident who lives in South Shore has been homeless with her 4 children for over a year. To The ‘least’ of These campaign Partner Lashondra Graves met Kimberly a year ago at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church of Chicago and Kim opened up to her and told her story. One year later once To The ‘least’ of These Campaign was up and running Kimberly’s story hadn’t changed. She and her 4 young children ages 11-4 were still homeless, but Kimberly has a job.
Kimberly shared with To The ‘least’ of These Partners Zaricor and Lillie Jackson and Lashondra Graves that she was still living in a shelter and never shared her story with her church. She told us of the late nights crying and looking at her children, but waking up with a smile for them. She has been a member of her church for a year and she said after trying everything else she wanted to try God, because she couldn’t do it anymore. She no longer had the strength to watch her children sleeping knowing there was no light to the end of the tunnel they are in. We have to ask ourselves “how can this be?” How can a family of 5 be homeless in Chicago for 1 year and the mother works making a little over minimum wage? Here is the problem.
The housing market in Chicago has reached a point where the residents making minimum wage or even a little more cannot afford to pay rent. A study by CCH shows 116,042 Chicagoans were homeless in the course of the 2012-13 school year. The Illinois State Board of Education says public schools identified 51,638 homeless students in the 2012-13 school year, up 8% in a year. Three of Kimberly’s children are part of that 51,638 homeless children in the Chicago Public School System.
How do we tackle a problem this big? One family at a time. We interviewed Kimberly on video and she was humble enough to share her story with the world in hopes that she can help another family who is going through the same problem. You can find her video at totheleastofthese.weebly.com.
To The ‘least’ of These is a campaign focused on helping homeless children and children living in poverty have a higher quality of living. Our vehicle to get this help to children is through “Backpacks 4 Life.” These packs are filled with living essentials for children and the items are based on the recipients’ location. Kimberly’s 4 children were the first recipients of the Backpacks 4 Life, but after doing research on her situation we decided to take her problem a step further.
We are running a campaign to raise $10,000 to help Kimberly and her children. The $10,000 will pay a portion of Kimberly’s rent for a year and buy beds and bedding for the unit. During that year Kimberly will pay $500 of the rent amount every month and attend monthly meetings with To The ‘least’ of These Campaign mangers to help her learn great budgeting skills, train her for works skills and to help her land a better job that will give her the affordability to pay rent and other bills. 100% of the money raised during this Campaign is going towards Kimberly’s year long project to become self-sustained.
Kimberly’s story is not unlike stories from families in Chicago for the past 29 years. Between 1985-1988 the Chicago Tribune wrote over 1500 stories on the homeless crisis in Chicago. One of our Campaign Partners Lashondra Graves and her family were one of the families in those stories during that time. We have to ask ourselves “why haven’t this problem changed in over 29 years?” Maybe we will never understand the answer to that question, but we can start making a change one family at a time today.
We will actively run this campaign to raise the money for Kimberly and her family for 4 weeks. Every week we will post how much money we have raised and how much more we need. Once we reach our goal, we will document Kimberly’s progress, from looking for a unit to live in to her monthly meetings. At the end of this year our goal is for Kimberly and her family to be self-sustained.
We can’t do this without your help. A donation as small as $10 can help Kimberly and her family get off the streets and give her children a chance at a stable life and the American Dream. People think the American Dream is a house, a car, a dog and a white picket fence, but the real American Dream is being able to dream at all.
To find out more about our campaign visit our website at totheleastofthese.weebly.com. We can’t make a difference without you!
View Kimberly’s story here.
You can also view the original story about the number of homeless families in Chicago here http://totheleastofthese.weebly.com/1/previous/2.html
Thank you from Zaricor Jackson, Lillie Jackson and Lashondra Graves
You can also donate here by making a check or money order to To The 'least' of These Campaign and mailing it here:
PO Box 4891
Downey California 90241