Growing Up Homeless

Boy Shares Story Of Being One Of Estimated 1.5 Million Homeless American Kids

(CBS)  What would it be like growing up homeless?

Many children like 11-year-old Justin Bisher now know.

His mother -- a single parent -- lost her job as a waitress, and then their duplex apartment in Sacramento, Calif. That’s when Bisher began living out of a suitcase.

In a special series called "CBS Reports: Children of the Recession," The Early Show and the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric showed what life is like for some of what the National Center on Family Homelessness estimates are 1.5 million homeless kids in the United States.

On The Early Show Friday, Bisher told what one typical day was like.

It began early, like almost any other child’s, but he didn't wake in his own room. Bisher, his sister and mother often slept in a church classroom.

Then, they shuttled across town for showers at a drop-in center. Bisher then headed to school, but one specially designed for homeless children, the Mustard Seed School.

Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez and producer Lisa Weiss wrote about this school -- one of only six in the nation reaching out to homeless students -- in a USA Today article, "School Caters to Homeless Children".

The school is a haven for homeless kids, according to Madelyn Hall, Bisher’s teacher.

"There are so many things homeless children take on emotionally," she said. "Even just not having a lunch. You know, wearing clothes that are dirty. Those things here don't really matter."

Fifteen to 35 students attend Mustard Seed School, and have an average stay of three-to-four weeks, Rodriguez reported.

Bisher says he has excelled in all of his classes, and has made a new friend, a cat named Lazarus who was once homeless himself.

After school, Bisher and his sister played on the church’s playground and ate a home-cooked dinner, provided by Family Promise of Sacramento.

Bisher’s mother, Lisa, said it’s hard not to be able to provide these things for her children.

"A lot of times, I feel like a failure," she said. "I feel like they deserve better. I wish for them to have, you know, the life that I know I could have had."

Lisa said she is looking for a job.

"I really think, even though jobs are scarce, where there's a will, there's a way," she said. "And it may take longer, but if you keep trying -- eventually something will happen."

And something did happen. After a long application process, Bisher’s family is getting their own apartment in a highly selective transitional housing and job training program at the Sacramento's Mather Community Campus.

Bisher and his sister will get their own bedroom.

"It feels really great to know that people care about you like that and that people really want to help you," Bisher said.

Looking back, his mother added, "Being homeless, for me and my kids -- it really is a hard way to live."

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For more information, contact the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

[TentCityPhoenix]

What a fantastic job of reporting.

What I see in Justin and in his mother Lisa is phenomenal character, strength and courage period. I'm thankful that I'm in a position to tell them that and give Justin's teacher a pat on the back too.

We've had some confusion in the past year as to whether the Mental Health Board in our county should be a rigidly advisory body to the Board of Supervisors or whether we can comment on issues publicly for fear it might be seen as advocacy.

To Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez and producer Lisa Weiss: You have my heartfelt thanks for such a wonderful job of reporting and for inspiring me to point out that with the awesome needs for confidentiality in health, mental health and school records issues in most cases it's rare that we have an opportunity surface with such an obvious mandate for crystal clear recognition.

You did a wonderful job highlighting the grace, strength and simple long suffering perseverance that shows superb character of some among us who give us the privilege and honor of being able to define ourselves as a society that has the quality of character to care.


Thanks,

-frank

Believe me, it will be my pleasure to follow through locally on this.

Frank L. Topping, Public Information Secretary
Sacramento County Mental Health Board
Member:
Sacramento County Mental Health Services Act Steering Committee.

[scottdavene]

I have been homeless at several points in my life. Contrary to popular belief, most homeless did not become so out of choice and not because they are lazy, stupid, or immoral. Many homeless people are victims of abuse in the form of neglect and abandonment by their parents or other caregivers. Some of them are simply victims of life?s tragedies, such as hurricanes, fires, or other catastrophes from which they simply don?t have the resources to recover. I invite you to my blog devoted to raising awareness on homelessness: www.freethegods.com. There you will find an article I wrote on homelessness and pictures I have taken of homeless people. I always give them a dollar or two for the privilege of photographing them. I am often surprised by their cheerfulness and sense of pride. Often, they will show themselves to have some kind of talent. There is a fine line between genius and insanity.

[singletax]

Homelessness started, on a systemic scale, back in the 1880s when all the land in the USA became legally owned.. From this point on a constant class of people were put out on the streets because to exist in the USA one had to pay an inflated price to exist to those who owned land. Simply put, all land was bottled up and titled as law-made property in direct violation of natural law and the natural rights we possess as human beings. The liberals create Housing Act after Housing Act after Fannie Mae after Freddie Mac after Jobs Programs... etc. redistributing income of those who can afford land as compensation. The conservatives see no problem in privatizing land that no human created and say just live in your car or under a bridge if the market price is to high. Both agendas are wrong.

The solution is to recapture the rental value of land by instituting a fee on the privilege to title land no one created. This can be accomplished by taxing land values. Shift the property tax off property and put the burden on land value. Thomas Paine and Henry George should be required reading if you want to understand homelessness, not Marx and Rush Limbaugh.

[breadymiller]

You should have respect for these people. I have been there. Last year I made 80,000 now I am homeless. Just because the woman has children doesnt make her bad. Her husban could of beat her? he could be dead? No one wants to live in the streest expecially with kids. Give them a break.

[mad_dog1976]

You people make me sick...........why did she have a baby if she was only a waitress, why not say lower class cant have kids..her job doesnt matter, she was employeed and truth be known your probably tied into the banks that shut her place of employment down, when are the upper class going to get off there so called high horse.

you know im glad to be middle class or what ever you call it because when the stock market falls, I still BB-Q on the weekends while the uppers are in stress units or knocking themselfs off....

[cleolady1]

THIS IS SICKENING, ElectricBlue44 HIS COMMENT SHOULD NOT EVEN BE POSTED. THE REICHEST NATION NEED I SAY ANYMORE. OUR FUTURE SLEEPING ON THE STREETS, NO FOOD,NO SHELTER, NO GUIDANCE , NO NOTHING. AND HERE WE ARE WORRYING ABOUT GITMO, GAYS, IRAQ AND OTHE ********!

[MikeBrock]

I have watched CBS news for the past couple of days to see the story of homeless children. I think CBS is just giving the happy side of it. Come to Kansas City and you can see homeless children living and sleeping on the streets. They are the "true" homeless. The available programs here are so over extended, that kids are literally sleeping