Picture the Homeless

Pamela Yearwood

My name is Pamela Yearwood, and I have been homeless since December 2002. Two weeks before I gave birth to my first child, Arthur, I arrived at Covenant House. After placements there for eight months, we arrived at the E.A.U. in September 2003.

I was then pregnant with my daughter Athina, and submitting my application for assistance for the first time there. Ten days later they served me with a 4002 form, notifying me that we would have to go back to my mother’s house. They were asking for me to provide documentation stating that I could not go back. I brought them a notarized letter from my mother and that wasn’t good enough. We were found ineligible again. I called for a “Fair Hearing” and was found ineligible again.

I went to Channel 4 news for help in exposing the DHS homeless system and they did a story on my struggle at the E. A. U. The aftermath of the story seemed to only make the situation worse. I was told in confidence by a DHS staff member that it was known amongst the investigators that we “wouldn’t be found eligible as long as I spoke out against the E.A.U.”. Since then, we have been found ineligible over eighty times with little or no break from service.

It is now June 15, 2005, I have chosen to speak out about this process, and the entire DHS system because I am sick and tired of them being able to filter money away from those who really need the help. I also want for myself to be found eligible so that I can make a home for my children. My two children have only known the E.A.U. as their home. My son is two and a half years old and can’t be potty-trained, as the conditions of the bathrooms are unbelievable. My daughter is fifteen months now and can’t exercise the way a child should because the E.A.U. is an office building unfit for children. I have now been living at the E.A.U. for one year and nine months and have been homeless for two years and six months. I have now been homeless longer than I had lived at my mother’s house, but I am continually being found ineligible. I am tired of all this.