There are no labels in homelessness.

You cannot classify a person as merely homeless. You have to speak about them as their own person, tragedies, life stories, etc.

I’m a 41 year old mother of two and because I spent half my life taking care of a bipolar parent who was either highly extreme in her moods, or extremely low, rarely did we have moments of calm waters before the storm. Because of that, she could never live on her own, so after living with her for a time and having to leave due to her physical abuse on one occasion, I found myself homeless with a 3 yr old. I had to go to a shelter, but before that I had no choice but to house hop between family, because I wanted my son to have that familiarity in life. I couldn’t afford rent because of my son’s behaviors, due to his special needs, and his bipolar. He continuously was kicked out of daycares, had suspensions in kindergarten and other grades through the years. It made me feel useless and irresponsible because I couldn’t work and had to keep quitting jobs, or getting let go, because of the time I had to put in with my son and his school issues.

That was the first shelter I had been to, the second was when my daughter was just 2 years old. So now I had two kids in tow and had lost yet another job, my dream job, because I had to take too much time off work for my son’s medical/surgical needs and care. I was drowning and I knew it and I faced the judgement every day, but I knew that times had been unkind to me and that my path at the time, was something I needed to go through to get me where I am today. I now own my own home and will be buying property soon to build a little community for people like me who have had the utmost negative experiences they could in life, being homeless and having hit rock bottom to get there.

So no, it’s not always our fault, but that’s always something the person looking on, will have to figure out in their mind. Are they kind enough to sit and listen to our stories, to hear our struggles, or do they just choose to bury their nose in their phones as they are passing us in the street or looking away just to hide that shame. They may not feel it, but someday they will think on it and that shame may come back. We all have a story, take the time to hear it, we may surprise you. ~Namaste~

©️ Tara Celeste