The Changing Face of Homelessness
Part 4

That's exactly why Shannon came to ESI - to get out of that cycle of poverty and think bigger for herself and her children.

She hopes after her child is born that she can finish her education and become a nurse.

At 23, she's had her share of troubles.

She was evicted from her previous residence when her husband landed in jail for a parole violation, and she had no money to pay the rent.

All of her old friends in Texas drank and did drugs, and she was trying to escape from that.

Shannon said that there she came to Richmond because of opportunities to get a job, social services and preschool for her children.

Already her son and daughter have been evaluated by a child development specialist. While Celeste, 4, passed "with flying colors," her 3-year-old son has some developmental delays and will be put with an occupational therapist.

She encourages them to think of better days, to look forward to when daddy comes and gets a job and then they can get new toys, a house and go to tap dancing lessons.

"I can do without a lot of things," she said, but she wants things for her children.

So far she's happy she came to Virginia and to ESI.

"Especially if you have no money the house works so wonderfully," she said. "We watch out for each other, and we pay each other back with food if we have no money."

But Shannon shows strains of moving from place to place and leaving things behind. She misses her dogs, two strays she took in. Her son named his blanket after one of them.

Right now she's working with Murchie on setting goals. "Anything you want or need or are interested in they will help you with that," she said. "The resources here are excellent."

The staff also helps her get outpatient rehabilitation for her drug and alcohol problem.

Her goals are to get her GED, her children in day care and a job so she can save some money and "get my own place before he gets here.

"Something they teach you here is don't set a goal unless you can achieve it - just do it day by day," she said.

But that can be difficult sometimes.

She has a 30-block walk to and from the welfare office with her children, because the shelter staff doesn't baby sit.

She's receiving TANF, Medicaid, Food Stamps and WIC, or Women Infants and Children, which provides nutritious food.

It doesn't come to much.

"For me being pregnant with two kids, getting $320 a month in TANF and $118 in Food Stamps, it's very little," she said.

"I use them when I need to use them," she said of welfare programs. "It's there for when you need it as long as you don't abuse it. I've always been honest," she said.

"The way my husband and I see it we work and we've worked our entire life. We pay so much in taxes. It's not us - it's everybody. Millions of dollars go into welfare fund," she said.

But low-wage jobs and relying on welfare can be dispiriting. "Stuff like that really brings your spirit down," she said.

And she said she's encountered prejudice as white woman in the welfare system. "I've been told that because I'm white it's easy for me to get a job," she said. "They just don't understand."

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