Dear Reader,
Saturday, I started a fellowship with Roots. Wounds. Words Inc.. Keynote speaker and founder of the literary arts nonprofit Nicole Shawn made a comment that described what I have been debating for years. “Writing is not the purpose you are in this world. It is the vehicle you use to fulfill your purpose.” In my writing, I have fought against my life purpose. I’ve deemed it to be grim, uncool, and frankly uncomfortable. I’ve lost and found it many times in the years I’ve been writing.
I’ve tried not to brand myself as a writer who writes only this or that because I enjoy my creative freedom and fear the day I veer away from my purpose, my writing will not be accepted. But the truth is that talking, or writing, about housing insecurity and all the issues that intersect with why a person may experience inaccessibility to a safe and affordable home is at the core of who I am as a person.
For months, I’ve been working on opening a YouTube Channel. It has taken practice, setup, the learning of new skills, and a lot of work.
Today, I released the first video. The videos will always start with a story because I believe in the power of stories.
So my dear reader, let me tell you a story.
Cheryl was going to college for nursing. Already working full-time as a medical assistant. When she got home every day after work, her three children needed a meal and homework help. Her feet swollen, she strolled into the kitchen and prepared a meal with her math textbook open on the counter. She couldn't keep up with the classes, the family, and the job. One night, Cheryl cried because she got an F on one of her exams. " I have to study. I can't keep falling asleep when I get home", Her boyfriend pushed the book and notebooks lying all across their bed. He hugged her and said, "I have something that'll give you a boast." Even though it was hard to say no, she refused a few times before the exhaustion and the pressure got to her.
That's how crack cocaine started unraveling Cheryl's life. Soon her boyfriend was hitting her. She wasn't able to work due to the physical abuse. She dropped out of college, abandoned her children, and ended up on the streets.
That's how I imagine Cheryl's life before the streets. The truth is that it doesn't matter how she ended up on drugs or on the streets. This story, while fictional, is a collage of women who are experiencing homelessness.
I'm Nilsa Ada Rivera and I post weekly videos about housing insecurity and other intersecting topics. If you are interested in this topic, please subscribe.
Even though I never met Cheryl, I know a few bare details of her life from newspaper articles I've read throughout the years. On a dark night, she was approached by a man who offered her drugs to have sex with him in a cemetery. He beat, raped, and burned her with gasoline in the cemetery across the street from where my mother lived with my siblings. We used to play Hide O' Seek in that cemetery.
I was seventeen and on the streets myself. My boyfriend and I had been motel hopping for months. On nights when we couldn't pay for a motel, we strolled down the streets during endless nights. We interacted with people like the man who killed Cheryl.
The morning Cheryl was found I had just returned from a motel. The smell of her burned flesh filled North Miami Avenue for blocks. The smell ingrained itself in the hallway of the apartment complex, on my clothes, and on my mind. She was my first warning of what can happen to a woman when she is experiencing homelessness.
In 2022 almost half a million people were houseless. 38.3% were women. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that 18 in every 10,000 persons are experiencing homelessness. The way this is calculated is through a Point in time count. Local organizations are called out and for a specified number of days, they go out on the streets and approach the population. They gather some basic information if the person agrees. If the person doesn't agree they don't get counted. This count doesn't include people struggling with other types of housing insecurity
Back then I was in a similar situation as Cheryl. After I broke up with an abusive partner my son and I didn't have anywhere to live. My family was unable to help me. For four years, my son and I coach-surfed, motel-hopped, and slept in abandoned buildings, cars, and even on the streets. Cheryl's fate and the fate of other women out there I meant scared the living shit out of me. I did a lot of shit to get out of homelessness. A safe home is the foundation of anything a person does in their lives. If a person doesn't have a safe home, they can't focus on anything. When I was out there on the streets there was just one thought in my mind: I need to survive.
Eventually, I got my first apartment and started a career in the affordable housing industry. That was back in the late ‘90s. Ever since, I’ve been working with the mission statement of doing my part to decrease homelessness, not only for myself but to honor the memory of Cheryl, a woman I never met but who left a big imprint in my life.
Trying to avoid homelessness, I designed my 23-year career with the mentality that I would educate myself and others about housing insecurity and I did. As I went to college and got a graduate degree in Public Administration, I worked on the front line for years. I got to place many persons and families in shelters, I've taught practical employability skills and helped others get their first job, go to college, and buy their first home. I also grew financially and got to use the same skills to advance in my life. But safe and affordable housing has always been difficult to maintain.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that in 2021 “3.7 million people reported a form of housing insecurity” But in December 2022, the US Census reported that Over 40% of renters in the country spent more than 30% of their income on housing costs. That's 19 million people.
In all these years of working as a housing professional, one question has always bothered me Why is hard to access affordable housing so difficult in the US? There are several reasons and that's what I have set out to explore in this channel. For many years, I like so many others have been busy surviving, trying to keep my household afloat so I haven’t had much time to research the policies and reasons that perpetuate housing insecurity.
This channel is an attempt to explore housing insecurity, to destigmatize it, and to foster compassion for those experiencing it. I've seen the value of the community coming together and helping each other. I want to imagine other Cheryls finding someone who will extend their hand at some point in her story, whether it is when she's going to school and needs that C just to keep her morale up, whether it's to babysit her children for an hour so she can study, or maybe even a friend that can say, I see you Cheryl, don't give up.
Every Sunday, I'll release a video with the information I gather from policies, books, and interviews about housing insecurity and other intersecting social issues. If you like this type of content, please like, share, and subscribe.
Thank you for reading, for watching it, and for supporting me.
Nilsa, congrats on starting a YouTube channel! Your story is so powerful, and it's meant to be heard. Thank you for the work you are doing.