Surviving Winter, Homelessness, & Trafficking
Helping a client break free from addiction and the elements trying to hold them back.
As I continue to go through old journals and notes, I am spending a lot of time reflecting on my child welfare work. With it being winter, I am reminded of one client and what they battled during winter four years ago.
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Winter generates different thoughts and emotions as you age. For most of us, when we are younger we hope for school being cancelled and playing in the snow when winter weather hits. As we get older, we think of winterizing our homes or having to deal with “crazy drivers” who don’t know how to drive in winter conditions. One thing I think about now when winter weather hits is how it affects those on the margins of our community.
I worked in child welfare as a Family Support Worker in 2020-2021, and focused on family reunification. One of the clients I worked with for a year experienced homelessness off and on throughout our time together.
Like a number of clients, they battled addiction and worked to break its cycle. Research shows it takes five attempts to overcome an addiction. A few may break the addiction the first time, but for a majority of people a relapse is part of the process.
With this client, I worked with them through multiple attempts to get clean over the course of a year. There is a temptation to be cynical toward an individual due to their failings and subsequent attempts to get clean. It’s not that you shouldn’t be realistic, but there should always be hope that this time could be the time they beat the addiction. As a caseworker you play an important part with their psyche. (During this time, my client had three different Case Managers which complicated things.) We can make things worse if we shame someone when they fail in their attempt to break free from addiction.
This post covers two months of the case when it was at its darkest.
January 2021
My client is evicted from their apartment. This is the second, reliable housing location they lived at the first six to eight months on the case. I know the eviction is coming and worked a number of fronts to help them. From checking in with legal aid contacts to finding area shelters that had capacity, I want to make sure my client isn’t living on the streets.
Thankfully, the day they are evicted is a mild January day. The client gives me a couple of friends’ neighborhoods they will be staying at until she finds more permanent housing. Nothing is specific.
The next day I drive around south Omaha trying to connect with my client. They want to meet at a Burger King near South High School, but when I arrive they aren’t there. Instead, they are near 24th Street about a mile away. I drive to the area and wait for them. Finally, I see them walk up and we meet outside a gas station.
Even though it is warm for January, the client is not dressed for the weather. Since the eviction, they don’t yet have access to their belongings. They are frantic, and I’m trying to calm them down. They don’t have a safe place to stay. I’m encouraging them to go to a shelter, but they think where they are at now is better for them. I’m trying to get them connected to community resources, but they won’t take advantage beyond the bus passes I have for them. They leave the gas station for the unknown. The weather will inevitably take a turn for the worse.
A few days later a blizzard hits the area. Later in the month, a snowstorm dumps eight inches of snow on the area. My client is vague with their location and who they are staying with during this time. They stay with people who she provides various services for so she can have a place to sleep. When I press for details they say “cooking and cleaning” and leave it at that. I hear this repeatedly when I ask in different ways, in different conversations. They move around town to different areas. I am concerned they might be trafficked in their vulnerable state. At least they still have their phone.
The client won’t let me see their living space, or talk with the people they live with, which is necessary if they want visitations with their child. (All child visitations have been suspended until further notice.) I drive to areas where I think my client will be and try to connect with them, to see them in person, but they don’t respond when I’m in the area.
If you’re not familiar with this context, you may wonder why someone doesn’t leave this life and go to a shelter. It’s not easy. You can only take a few items with you. You can’t take pets. (This client had a pet.) There is a curfew. Your schedule is strictly regulated. Some shelters are heavy-handed with religion. There can be informers amongst the residents at a shelter, and if you are trying to escape your past it may not be safe. A shelter can be an unknown, while the chaos someone lives within is known. Plus, it is hard to acknowledge you are at a place in life where you need the kind of help a shelter has. For many, it’s a big step to go to a shelter and one that should be supported.
February 2021
Temperatures have not topped the freezing mark for nearly two weeks now. A foot of snow is packed on the ground. More snow is in the forecast. Despite the harsh winter, my client continues to take their chances with living on the streets and those who will use them so they have a bed and a roof over their head.
I worry for the client and continue to plead with them to get to a shelter in nearly all of our conversations now. I call local shelters to make sure they have capacity for them. I research the bus lines near area shelters to make sure they have transportation to employment and community resources. I make sure the shelters have visitation areas, or areas nearby, that will work for them to meet with their child. I have been trying for weeks to get them to enter one of two shelters that met these criteria.
Friday afternoon I turn off my work phone for the weekend and I distinctly remember wondering if the client is going to survive the weekend. The weeks leading up to now they talk of giving up hope, giving up on the case, and taking medication to sleep. That weekend the Omaha area tops freezing for the first time in weeks for a brief moment, but also receives another six plus inches of snow. I wonder about my client.
Monday morning I turn on my work phone and there is nothing from my client. I reach out to them but they do not respond right away. Later in the day they text that they had an “ugly weekend”. I worry because the forecast has subzero cold in the days ahead, including the potential for -40 windchill.
That afternoon I get a call from who serves people that are experiencing homelessness in the South Omaha area. They are driving my client to an area shelter and ask if I can help. I call ahead to the shelter to make sure there is capacity for them. There is, and I call this individual back to let them know. The client then asks about a second shelter. So, I call the second shelter and they have availability for them to enter. Due to the pandemic, there are a series of protocols they will have to undergo to stay there. I call the client and non-profit worker to explain what will happen and if they will abide by the shelter’s protocols. They agree to it, and we get them in the shelter.
They clear quarantine after a few days and I meet with the client at the shelter. They are emotional, processing everything they have gone through to get to this point. They are sober minded for the first time in a while. They start to reveal some of what they have had to do to survive on the streets the past few weeks. It isn’t good. Later on, they tell me the weekend where I worried about them they broke into an abandoned building, took a sleeping pill, and fell asleep hoping not to wake up. However, they did wake up and wondered about their life ahead. They recommitted to reunify with their child. This small act of belief led them to get help and move forward.
As the client starts to get clean they become determined to do what they need to regain custody of their child.
The remaining two plus months I am on the case the client stays clean. They are able to enter a program the shelter provides to help people with their sobriety and prepare them for life after the shelter. The client makes incredible progress over this time with their case. They start fulfilling court orders and reestablish ongoing visitations with their child. Their child responds well to them. As I leave the case, and ultimately the organization, there is hope.
Spring is here.
Aftermath
As I readied this post to go out, I came across an Omaha World-Herald article about an individual who was found dead out in the cold. The individual did not have a home in all likelihood. I’m grateful for area shelters and others in the community who do what they can to make sure the vulnerable among us have a safe and warm place to stay.
Due to the nature of the child welfare work, most clients do not want to stay in contact once they have fulfilled their court order obligations. Every once in a while, I will look up this particular client on social media to see how they are doing. Four years later everything seems to be going well with them and their child.
Thank you for reading these posts. If you’d like to read more about my child welfare work, click here.
You insult your Maker when you exploit the powerless;
when you’re kind to the poor, you honor God.