Fighting Her Way Out Of Homelessness

Young Woman Tries To Stay Afloat Amid Sacramento's Growing Homeless Problem

(CBS)  The tents that lay hidden along the American River in Sacramento, California's capital, aren't there for camping. They make up a homeless community, or "tent city," where about 120 people live, with all they own in or around the tents.

Conditions are unsanitary, and those who reside there will be forced to relocate within weeks, reports CBS News correspondent Priya David. The state said it would provide temporary housing for some of the tent city residents, but local shelters say there are twice as many homeless people in Sacramento as there are beds.

That's why Amber Jones considers herself lucky.

The 26-year-old never imagined herself as someone who could be homeless. But after moving to the city a month ago from Arizona with only a minimum-wage waitress job and no college degree, she couldn't afford a place to live.

And frankly, the tent city scares her.

"There's drugs and stuff like that," she told David in Part Three of the Early Show series, "Early Across America," which tells stories of hope amid the economic despair sweeping the nation, "and people that probably would try to take advantage of someone young, or a girl."

Jones currently calls the Salvation Army home. She sleeps on a bunk bed there, goes to a local homeless shelter called Loaves and Fishes for a hot meal and a shower, and is trying to keep her homelessness a secret. She hopes to have an apartment of her own soon and wants to go back to school.

The experience has opened Jones' eyes and changed her opinion about the kind of people who are homeless.

"I always thought of homeless people being dirty or smelling," she said. "Whatr I've realized, being at the Salvation Army and being in the area, is that people you would never guess are homeless."

Sister Libby Fernandez, the executive director of Loaves and Fishes, believes Jones can beat the odds.

"This is a woman who can do it," she says. "She has a lot of energy. She's young. She's not giving up. She has a lot of hope."

The tent city is set to close at the end of April, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will team up with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson to temporarily relocate tent city residents, so they have a safe place to stay while the city and state try to come up with a solution Sacramento's growing homeless problem.

Officers Mike Zoulas and Mike Cooper, who patrol that tent city and who the residents call "Batman and Robin," want the chronically homeless who live there to have the same hopes that Amber Jones has for herself.

"These people that live here, they're not victims of the mortgage crisis, and they're not victims of the economy," Zoulas said. "But they're human beings, and they need help."

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If you are homeless yourself and need help, or if you want to help the homeless, vsit these websites:
HUD, Resources for the Homeless
Covenant House

The following are faith-based organizations mentioned in the "Early Across America" piece:
Sacramento Loaves and Fishes
Salvation Army