Main Links

home about us events host a party support a host! edit your host page Give Us Your Poor Website

Events

It's All About Love 2/9/2006 6:00:00 PM

Bringing It Home:  Raising Awareness 6/18/2005 5:00:00 PM

Live Music on May 7th 5/7/2005 8:00:00 PM

Toms of Maine Lunch 5/3/2005

Grilling for GUYP 7/10/2004 11:00:00 AM More events...

Last spring, Cheryl Middleton had been homeless for nearly a year. The single mother of three was struggling to raise her children in a cramped Medford hotel room. With federal assistance, she now is working to get back on her feet while living in a Medford apartment. She has vowed to help others who are in similar situations, and organized "Bringing it Home: Raising Awareness" in Medford this weekend.

The event will feature family entertainment, including door prizes, face painting, a karaoke contest, food, and musical performances by three local rock bands: The Mercy Bat, featuring Brooks School fifth-grade teacher Mike Allen, with a special guest appearance by fourth-grade teacher Eric Paci; Midnight Blonde, featuring Gia Greene and Deveney Williams; and The Cascades.

Money raised will benefit Homes for Families, a Boston-based organization that seeks ways to reduce homelessness across the state, and the "Give us Your Poor. Homeless and the United States" project, a feature-length documentary aimed at educating the public about homelessness.

Middleton became homeless in the summer of 2003, when she left her home in Medford after a family conflict. She and her children moved into the AmeriSuites in Medford, which was being used as a shelter by the state Department of Transitional Assistance. She said it was difficult for her family to adjust from living in a large house with a huge yard to squeezing into a hotel room with only a microwave to cook on. However, Middleton said she was grateful to be able to stay in her community and keep her children in the school system.

"I was doing temp work here and there, getting assignments as I could get them," she said, adding that it was difficult to work because "you can't just go to work; you have to pay for day care and worry about what you're going to do with your kids after school."

Feeling that she had to stay strong for her children, she focused on getting out of the shelter. On New Year's Eve at the end of 2003, she finally received word that she could get a voucher under Section 8, a federal program that helps low-income families pay rent in the private housing market.

"A lot of people think, 'Oh, you have your Section 8 voucher, so you can just get an apartment and that's that,' " she said. However, many hurdles still lay ahead for the family. With a child under age 6, Middleton had to find a de-leaded apartment, as required by federal guidelines. In addition, she couldn't live in a place with wall-to-wall carpeting because of her older children's allergies.

"I literally went up and down the streets of Medford looking at any place that had a 'For rent' sign," she said.

Middleton searched every day for an apartment. If she did not find one quickly, her Section 8 voucher could have been revoked. Finally, in May 2004, as time was running out, Middleton found an apartment.

Because of her family's experience, Middleton was drawn to advocacy for the homeless. She spoke at a legislative breakfast in 2004 and is a board member of Homes for Families. She also appears in the National Coalition for Homeless Children's "Give Us Your Poor" documentary.

Enlisting the help of Christine Ellersick, the mother of her daughter's best friend, Middleton organized Saturday's event to raise awareness of the problem of homelessness in the United States.

Informational tables about these organizations will be set up at the event and Middleton will speak about her experience being homeless and, through personal stories, seek to educate the public about the misconceptions that the homeless are dirty, disease-ridden, and live on the streets.

"People who work are homeless; people who go to school are homeless," she said. "The neighbor who lives two houses down from you could be two paychecks away from being homeless."

DONNA NOVAK
Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.