In Tucson, No Room at the Inn for Homeless Single Dads
But there's one need most shelters are not even close to meeting."I'm a single dad and I have this baby and we've fallen upon hard times," says Attila Streyar as he holds his toddler daughter, Layla."I needed some help, just to get shelter. There was no place in this town that I could find that takes care of men with children by themselves," Streyar says.
Times are hard. People are out of work and cold weather is just around the corner. In some places, it's arrived. And for homeless people, that makes their already-hard lives all the harder. This article talks about the hardships of the out-of-work and homeless in the Tucson, Arizona area (KOLD, 10/28/09). There, people who have never been homeless before are living in their cars because shelters are bursting at the seams.
But the article raises more than just the usual issues surrounding the fraying social safety net. In Tucson at least, if you're a single father without a home, you're almost certainly out of luck and so is your child. There are lots of shelters in the area, but only one, Primavera Foundation, accepts single men with children. Others will accept a man with children if there's also a woman present, but the rule in all Tucson shelters but one is "No Single Dads Allowed."
It occurred to me to ask why that's the case, so I called Primavera to see if they knew. Their response: "That's a good question." Have they ever had any problem with accepting single fathers? No. They get very few of them, but they've never had a problem.
I spoke with Pastor Danny Hansen, Associate Executive Director of Gospel Rescue Mission in Tucson. His mission has a women's and children's shelter and a men's shelter. If a family with children comes to them for shelter, the mother and child are sent to the women's and children's shelter and the man is housed in the men's shelter. A single mother with a child is housed in the women's and children's shelter, but a single father with a child is simply turned away. Why? Pastor Hansen said "That would not be appropriate."
Further discussion elicited the information that the board of directors of the Gospel Rescue Mission perceived that children in a men's shelter would be in greater danger than children in a women's shelter. Pastor Hansen went on to explain that the Gospel Rescue Mission is considering establishing a family shelter that would accept any parent or parents with children. But if that happens at all, it won't be soon.
The bottom line? If you're a single dad, keep your job and keep your house. If you don't, it's the street for you and your children.
| More from Robert Franklin, Esq.
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