Ok, I’m not sure I fully understand the full impact of the new rules about child support and W-2 payments but I do understand the very hard working women who work in my office. I understand that they were visibly upset because they are going to have to exist on a whole lot less money than they were before. Why? Because the federal government decided that the child support they were receiving will be used to reduce the payments they get for participating in W-2. I understand they are worried about how the new rules would effect their food stamps, and childcare assistance, and mileage and how were they going to pay their rent? I also understand, as Lisa Subeck very eloquently points out, that the W-2 system is less than perfect. Ok, it downright sucks. I also realize, that these hard working women who have so many medical and other life issues, are doing the best they can to survive in world of rules I can’t begin to try to understand, even with my law degree.
What I can’t understand, is why, today, when there was a client in my office that was having a major life crisis, the “safety net” seemed to have so many holes in it. And instead of the “safety net” working, a woman in my office, who was receiving W-2 assistance herself, offered a homeless woman a warm, safe place to sleep tonight.
I missed the beginning of the story, as I was out of the office. However, I came back to the office and there was a woman who was speaking in very broken English talking on the one of our phones, and she was crying. (OK, that part wasn’t so unusual) She was explaining how she couldn’t go back to her home because her roommate had threatened to kill her child. Since she was having trouble expressing herself, the woman in my office that receives W-2 assistance if she volunteers in my office x numbers of hours a week was helping her explain her situation to various social service agencies. This client made multiple phone calls, and used our office to receive some return calls. After numerous calls, and subsequent rejections from several social service agencies around town who were all full (including the Domestic Abuse shelter who told her to go home and that they would call her back there – I really hope there was some miscommunication here!) the woman decided to go to the Salvation Army (who had already told her that they were full). She was going to try to see if she could get into the “Warming Shelter” (why didn’t the Salvation Army tell her this was an option?), which is an opportunity for 14 desperate people to sleep on a mattress in the hallway to avoid freezing to death. No one in our office had much hope she would get in and told her to come back if nothing worked out. (Up to this point, still, nothing unusual.) As the woman was leaving, the woman who receives W-2 assistance wrote down her home and work phone number on a piece of paper. She said to the woman “If you don’t find a safe place to sleep tonight, call me and you can stay at my house. Even if you’re still having problems a month from now, call me.” The client gave the woman who works for us a big long hug, and thanked her for her warmth and understanding.
I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years, and I learned a long time ago, you can’t take clients home with you and there are only so many hotel rooms, security deposits and “eviction prevention” payments you can personally pay for. However, the kindness of the human spirit never ceases to amaze me . . . and the failure of the safety net never fails to disappoint and anger me.
As my friend Nan Cheney has been known to say, no, demand of elected officials “Do Better.” We definitely need to do better.
