Carey Fuller is a homeless mother of two who lives out of a van in the Pacific Northwest. She is also a blogger.
One of the amazing things about the modern day is that communication and information are so ubiquitous. Because of the spread of smartphones and laptops combined with the proliferation of free wi-fi, even some of the homeless can get online.
What results is an intensely personal portrait of life among society’s discarded.
To quote one of Fuller’s pieces on The Huffington Post:
My name is not hopeless and neither is yours. Regardless of how you came into homelessness, you are still a human being. Keep sharing your experiences until the truth about homelessness becomes common knowledge — because the way things are going, it might as well be. Let’s face it. Homelessness and poverty aren’t sexy subjects to present, yet they are a growing epidemic everywhere!
What’s sad is how much the public doesn’t know about homelessness. Like the fact that there aren’t enough resources to prevent homelessness for everybody, yet most people won’t do anything about it until they experience a “qualifying event” that forces them into the ranks of homelessness or close to it.
Now here’s the kicker: once you know you can no longer keep a roof over your head, you cannot wait until eviction day and assume you can just go into a shelter for “emergency housing.” There’s no such thing because there are waiting lists and a process you have to go through to determine whether or not you qualify for help. That’s right; you have to qualify for assistance. If you don’t, there’s a big hole in the safety net you thought would be there. So be prepared to hit the cement!
Her narrative of day-to-day life as a modern, involuntary nomad is striking. From horror stories about the red tape involved in getting almost any sort of assistance to recipes for eating dandelions (commonly found as weeds in the wild) her posts take you into a world inhabited by more and more modern Americans.
Check out Tales From The Driver’s Side, her blog, or her regular contributions to The Huffington Post. It will change your perspective.n
Related articles
- WATCH: Homeless Man Gives Voice To Other Homeless Using Flipcam (huffingtonpost.com)
- Homelessness: Hidden homeless (limaohio.com)
- Rhode Island Passes ‘Homeless Bill Of Rights’ (brandtstandard.com)
- Photo exhibit portrays homeless with dignity, compassion (record-eagle.com)
