Is Tamara Really Homeless?

It would take nothing short of a miracle to change the path life has created for Tamara, a 25 year
old girl who faces difficult challenges on a daily basis. She is homeless but she is not counted
when it comes to the statistics for homelessness. Tamara is what Art from the Streets calls
‘hidden homeless’ of those that float around and stay with family and friends. A typical, first
image of a “homeless” person tends to look like a middle-aged man with a backpack displaying
behaviors that appear to be related to mental health issues. Did you know that many people
that are experiencing homelessnes are children? In my thinking about homelessness, I
wondered how many people have relatives that have experienced homelessness in their
lifetime? The homeless people you see on the street must have a family, right? In a
conversation with my mother, we realized that we do know someone who would be considered
homeless in our family, who is my cousin, Tamara. The ‘hidden homeless’ teenagers don’t get
the help they need because they do not seek it. In most cases, they most likely do not see the
risks and dangers they are facing in respect to homelessness.

My first attempt at contacting Tamara was by phone and when I dialed the phone number, the
phone had been disconnected. My mother had to contact her brother to determine if Tamara
still had a phone. He provided a phone number of a friend that I could use to contact her to see
if she would be willing to answer a few questions. Once I finally reached her, Tamara answered
with a very friendly, “Well, hello cousin! How ya’ll doing?” which set me at ease instantly. We
exchanged a few friendly generalities about our lives with a particularly boisterous focus in my
direction.

Tamara’s friend stepped in to help her set up a video call so we could see each other face to
face. I was surprised how much older she looked and she was really surprised to see how
much I had changed in the 8 years since we had seen each other. Her long dark hair and
southern accent disguised her disappointment in her recount of events in her life and she finally
agreed to answer a few questions as she exclaimed “that would help me to graduate high
school” as her voice beamed.

As I began to ask Tamara a few questions, it felt as if I was older and I was asking a young girl
questions about her life. Tamara giggled and joked around and it took me quite a while to get
her settled into listening. Her southern accent masked her poor grammar and inability to focus
and answer questions about herself. I really enjoyed talking to her with the southern, Alabama
accent that mesmerized me. It was apparent that she has developed a level of outward focus,
making people feel comfortable with her so she could potentially gain their trust and attention.
She was definitely uncomfortable with the focus on herself and her life. Tamara grew up in a
very unstable environment where as a young child, she lost her mother at the age of 7 years old
according to my mother. Tamara indicated that she was 9 years old when her mother passed
away but my mother found the obituary that indicated that she was actually 7. Tamara lived with
many relatives who stepped in to help as her father is a shrimper who is gone eight weeks at a
time to earn a living. She was 9 years old when she experienced Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
She weathered the storm with her family and had to wade down to a safer place during the
storm event. She seemed to enjoy telling the story and was not able to see how horrific an
experience this would be for anyone. This series of unfortunate events and the poverty
experienced by her family are common among homeless families that put the family at risk for
homelessness. In fact, the rate of homeless families to individuals rose from 1% in 1988 to 36%
in 2019 according to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA
(2).

Tamara struggled in school with all odds against her to graduate high school. She was moved
around from house to house and did not have a stable, predictable environment. She indicated
that she has had to repeat a grade, missed school and experienced many different levels of
family separation. Even though she did not live in a group home or on the streets, she was, in
fact, homeless. According to the National Center for Homeless Education, “Homeless students
are more likely to miss school, repeat a grade, have behavior problems at school, experience
developmental delays, and show high rates of mobility and family separation. All these risk
factors adversely affect school performance and limit potential opportunities to escape poverty
(3)” and it is evident that my cousin easily fits into this statistic. Interestingly, Tamara is still living
the same way as a 25 year old woman. She moves around staying with relatives and friends. A
virtual common-sense map of homelessness (4) quantitatively weighted indicates that family
breakdown, income, education and childhood homelessness are all heavily-weighted events
that lead to homelessness of an individual person. This virtual map is shown below and the
indicators that lead to homelessness were all experienced by Tamara who surprisingly did not
see herself in a crisis.
I asked Tamara why she thought she was homeless. She quickly replied, “I have had a hard
time keeping a job” without any hesitation. Tamara did graduate high school and was very
proud of it. As I read through the statistics and her experiences, I think she should be very
proud of herself. She has had several jobs but though another event of a car accident, she is
unable to keep working without transportation. Her hometown is isolated and an impoverished
community. There is no public transportation so Tamara has to rely on family and friends if she
is not able to get herself to a job. The instability and dependency she lives in prevents her from
advancing beyond her current and past situation. Tamara sleeps in a park when she is not able
to connect with someone who is willing to help her. She sees this as her time alone and a way
to recharge her batteries. An event that may set an average person back slightly, changes the
future for Tamara and puts her two steps backward and not able to recover keeps her
impoverished and unable to help herself. She has learned to live in this environment and keeps
trying to move forward. She relishes her time with family and friends and seems to spend a lot
of time thinking about a few periods in her past that were stable as good memories. She
mentioned her mother a few times and how she still misses her as she said ‘fixin’ her hair for
school every morning’ that made me feel as if this was not the first time she has spoken of this.

Tamara has been homeless most of her life. She continues to be homeless into her adult life.
She is quite the character with her laughter and joking around. She has the ability to make you
laugh and feel comfortable around her to spite the fact that her life experiences and current
situation are not desirable. Homelessness is defined as not having a permanent home or place
of residence (5). Multiple studies have found that homelessness is associated with a lack of
attention to basic needs, extreme poverty, substance use, mental health issues, and high levels
of parental emotional stress. Homeless children are also more likely than their peers to have
moderate, severe, and chronic health problems, and less access to medical and dental care.
Tamara talks about sleeping in the park and talks about catastrophic events such as weathering
a hurricane as if they are everyday occurrences. She doesn’t seem to grasp the gravity of her
circumstances and she does not seem to have discovered that there are services available to
help her out her poverty. She continues to rely on family and friends to support her and
somehow has learned to live in a state of helplessness. Tamara does not have high
expectations that she will, through her own efforts, have a home. Her final words were “If you
could tell the government to help me find a private little tiny house, I would do much better.” and
I am afraid this might actually be her only hope.

Sources
1. Types of Homelessness
The Types of Homelessness – Art from the Streets
Last Updated 11/28/2019

2. Family Homelessness
Child Homelessness: A Growing Crisis | SAMHSA
Last Updated: 07/31/2019
3. Homelessness and Education publication
Homelessness and Education
1Dec 2015

4. Family Homelessness leads to Individual Homelessness

Analyzing the impact of social factors on homelessness: a Fuzzy Cognitive Map
approach | BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making | Full Text
(biomedcentral.com)
August 23, 2013

5. Homelessness Cause and Effect

What Is Homelessness? - Definition, Causes & Effects - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

REVIEW FROM WRITING CENTER

Hi Sydney, I'll be helping you with your writing today. I'll be commenting as I read through each
paragraph, and then I'll have some general comments at the end. As for your question about
whether this counts for class credit, that's something only your professor can answer, so you'll need
to ask her. If it does, the way I have my students count SWRC sessions is by sending me a screen
shot of the feedback via email. If your professor says this can count, you might also ask if that's the
way she prefers to see it.

Anyway, on to the paper!

In your introduction, I had a tough time following the ideas from one sentence to another. If we just
look at the first two sentences as an example, you tell me that Tamara has a tough life, but you don't
say why. Then in the next sentence, you mention the stereotypes of homelessness, which makes me
think that Tamara is homeless, but you haven't said so directly. Even by the time I get to the final
sentence, Tamara is only someone who "would be considered homeless," and I'm not entirely sure
how that's different from just being homeless. Considered by who? And are there others who
wouldn't consider her homeless for some reason? You want to make sure that you're providing as
clear an introduction as possible since it's setting up the rest of the paper. DONE

In the second paragraph, I was having a bit of trouble with some of the details. While you say you
were on the phone with her, you start describing her hair, which made me wonder if you had seen
her recently and were just imagining what she was looking like as you talked to her, but later, when
you say you haven't seen her in eight years, that made me question the assumption I had made. I
get that you eventually had a video call with her, but the order you present details, especially
physical details, can really make a difference for a reader. REORGANIZED

I do appreciate the next paragraph's details about her discomfort about talking about herself and the
way you tie in your source at the end of the paragraph. I wasn't quite sure what you meant by her
accent masking her grammar, though, and I was left wondering exactly where she lived since Katrina
devastated a pretty wide area. Was she in New Orleans itself? Somewhere nearby in Louisiana? In
Alabama? Another state? These kinds of details can really help to fill out a profile. FIXED

And it's only in the next paragraph where I finally get a sense of what Tamara's situation is. When
you said that she never slept on the streets or a group home, I wondered again how you were
defining her as homeless until I saw that she moved around with relatives and friends. I think this is
something that you should clarify earlier. ALREADY DONE. Some readers may think that homeless
just means having to live on the street. I'm aware of the wider definition personally, but I'm not sure
that all readers will be. In order to bring attention to an issue like homelessness, you first have to
make sure that your reader knows what it is, so the person you're profiling speaks to that issue well.

I don't understand what the graphic is doing for the profile. Remember that sources don't speak for
themselves. You have to show the reader how they fit in your own purpose for writing. You've done
this well with your quotes, but the figure really seems dropped in without context or
explanation.FIXED

When you say she spends a lot of time thinking about good memories, this would be a good place to
hear Tamara's voice. Can you give an example of one of these memories, maybe with a quote
directly from her about it? FIXED

Aha! In your final paragraph is the information about homelessness that I was looking for from the
beginning. You could definitely bring in elements from this last paragraph into your introduction
instead.

Overall, I think you're off to a good start with this draft of your profile. I think you just need to keep in
mind all of the things that your reader might not know, both about Tamara and about the topic of
homelessness, and introduce those ideas in an order that will help them understand the rest of the
profile. Work on reorganizing a bit and fleshing out some of the specific details, and I think you'll
have a much stronger next draft.
ORIGINAL DRAFT - REVISION AT TOP OF DOCUMENT
Is Tamara Really Homeless?

It would take nothing short of a miracle to change the path life has created for Tamara, a 25 year
old girl who faces difficult challenges on a daily basis. A typical, first image of a “homeless”
person tends to look like a middle-aged man with a backpack displaying behaviors that appear
to be related to mental health issues. Did you know that many people that are experiencing
homelessnes are children? In my thinking about homelessness, I wondered how many people
have relatives that have experienced homelessness in their lifetime? The homeless people you
see on the street must have a family, right? In a conversation with my mother, we realized that
we do know someone who would be considered homeless in our family, who is my cousin,
Tamara.

My first attempt at contacting Tamara was by phone and when I dialed the phone number, the
phone had been disconnected. My mother had to contact her brother to determine if Tamara
still had a phone. He provided a phone number of a friend that I could use to contact her to see
if she would be willing to answer a few questions. Once I finally reached her, Tamara answered
with a very friendly, “Well, hello cousin! How ya’ll doing?” which set me at ease instantly. We
exchanged a few friendly generalities about our lives with a particularly boisterous focus in my
direction. Her long dark hair and southern accent disguised her disappointment in her recount
of events in her life and she finally agreed to answer a few questions as she exclaimed “that
would help me to graduate high school” as her voice beamed. Her friend stepped in to help
Tamara set up a video call so we could see each other face to face. I was surprised how much
older she looked and she was really surprised to see how much I had changed in the 8 years
since we had seen each other.

As I began to ask Tamara a few questions, it felt as if I was older and I was asking a young girl
questions about her life. Tamara giggled and joked around and it took me quite a while to get
her settled into listening. Her southern accent masked her poor grammar and inability to focus
and answer questions about herself. It was apparent that she has developed a level of outward
focus, making people feel comfortable with her so she could potentially gain their trust and
attention. She was definitely uncomfortable with the focus on herself and her life. Tamara grew
up in a very unstable environment where as a young child, she lost her mother at the age of 7
years old according to my mother. Tamara indicated that she was 9 years old when her mother
passed away but my mother found the obituary that indicated that she was actually 7. Tamara
lived with many relatives who stepped in to help as her father is a shrimper who is gone eight
weeks at a time to earn a living. She was 9 years old when she experienced Hurricane Katrina
in 2005. She weathered the storm with her family and had to wade down to a safer place during
the storm event. She seemed to enjoy telling the story and was not able to see how horrific an
experience this would be for anyone. This series of unfortunate events and the poverty
experienced by her family are common among homeless families that put the family at risk for
homelessness. In fact, the rate of homeless families to individuals rose from 1% in 1988 to 36%
in 2019 according to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA
(1).
Tamara struggled in school with all odds against her to graduate high school. She was moved
around from house to house and did not have a stable, predictable environment. She indicated
that she has had to repeat a grade, missed school and experienced many different levels of
family separation. Even though she did not live in a group home or on the streets, she was, in
fact, homeless. According to the National Center for Homeless Education, “Homeless students
are more likely to miss school, repeat a grade, have behavior problems at school, experience
developmental delays, and show high rates of mobility and family separation. All these risk
factors adversely affect school performance and limit potential opportunities to escape poverty
(2)” and it is evident that my cousin easily fits into this statistic. Interestingly, Tamara is still living
the same way as a 25 year old woman. She moves around staying with relatives and friends. A
published virtual common-sense map of homelessness (3) quantitatively weighted was tested
and indicates that family breakdown, income, education and childhood homelessness are all
heavily-weighted events that lead to homelessness of an individual person. These indicators
were all experienced by Tamara who surprisingly did not see herself in a crisis.

I asked Tamara why she thought she was homeless. She quickly replied, “I have had a hard
time keeping a job” without any hesitation. Tamara did graduate high school and was very
proud of it. As I read through the statistics and her experiences, I think she should be very
proud of herself. She has had several jobs but though another event of a car accident, she is
unable to keep working without transportation. Her hometown is isolated and an impoverished
community. There is no public transportation so Tamara has to rely on family and friends if she
is not able to get herself to a job. The instability and dependency she lives in prevents her from
advancing beyond her current and past situation. Tamara sleeps in a park when she is not able
to connect with someone who is willing to help her. She sees this as her time alone and a way
to recharge her batteries. An event that may set an average person back slightly, changes the
future for Tamara and puts her two steps backward and not able to recover keeps her
impoverished and unable to help herself. She has learned to live in this environment and keeps
trying to move forward. She relishes her time with family and friends and seems to spend a lot
of time thinking about a few periods in her past that were stable as good memories.

Tamara has been homeless most of her life. She continues to be homeless into her adult life.
She is quite the character with her laughter and joking around. She has the ability to make you
laugh and feel comfortable around her to spite the fact that her life experiences and current
situation are not desirable. Homelessness is defined as not having a permanent home or place
of residence (4). Multiple studies have found that homelessness is associated with a lack of
attention to basic needs, extreme poverty, substance use, mental health issues, and high levels
of parental emotional stress. Homeless children are also more likely than their peers to have
moderate, severe, and chronic health problems, and less access to medical and dental care.
Tamara talks about sleeping in the park and talks about catastrophic events such as weathering
a hurricane as if they are everyday occurrences. She doesn’t seem to grasp the gravity of her
circumstances and she does not seem to have discovered that there are services available to
help her out her poverty. She continues to rely on family and friends to support her and
somehow has learned to live in a state of helplessness. Tamara does not have high
expectations that she will, through her own efforts, have a home. Her final words were “If you
could tell the government to help me find a private little tiny house, I would do much better.” and
I am afraid this might actually be her only hope.

Sources
1. Family Homelessness

“Child Homelessness: A Growing Crisis.” SAMHSA,

www.samhsa.gov/homelessness-programs-resources/hpr-resources/child-homelessness-
growing-crisis. Child Homelessness: A Growing Crisis | SAMHSA Last Updated:
07/31/2019

2. Homelessness and Education publication

Mcgah, John. Homelessness and Education Cross-System Collaboration: Applied

Research Summary and Tools. Dec. 2015. Homelessness and Education
3. Family Homelessness leads to Individual Homelessness

Mago, Vijay K, et al. “Analyzing the Impact of Social Factors on Homelessness: a

Fuzzy Cognitive Map Approach.” BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making,
BioMed Central, 23 Aug. 2013,
bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6947-13-94#F
ig3. Analyzing the impact of social factors on homelessness: a Fuzzy Cognitive
Map approach | BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making | Full Text
(biomedcentral.com)

4. Homelessness Cause and Effect

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