Living in Storage -- Growing up Poor in the Bay Area

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New America Media, Video, Sean Shavers, Posted: Sep 20, 2011

Editor's Note: When Roseanna, 20, found herself without a place to stay, things fell apart. She had to drop out of college, deal with a medical issue and be separated from her family. A resident of Oakland Ca. Roseanna has been living out of a storage shelter for 10 months, couch surfing with friends and selling food stamps to pay her phone bill.

Sean Shavers, 20, is a content producer at NAM and the Richmond Pulse. This video was produced for Growing up Poor in the Bay Area a community forum held by New America Media, the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health and kidsdata.org.

 

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Anonymous

Posted Sep 22 2011

"Medical issue" = getting pregnant out of wedlock. She thought she could leave her job at any time and then come back any time. She scams the food stamp program to pay for her cell phone. Tea partyers would have a field day with this one.

Anonymous

Posted Sep 22 2011

What's being married have to do with anything. I can't stand points made about un-expected pregnancies and whether they're born to parents that are married or not. Having a father to help raise and take care of the child in hand with the mother is what matters. NOT marriage.

Alternatively, I think it's exponentially hard for people born within a poverty stricken home to break out of their status and join the ranks of the middle class. What if someone isn't strong enough to make it, what if you do get pregnant or have a death that requires you to take care of things you never had too. It's all to easy to cast stones at people in positions your not. Give humanity some credit, this world-this country is a bitch of a place to exist.

Anonymous

Posted Sep 29 2011

What a naive little sister, who advised her that dropping out of San Francisoi State University and moving to Pittsburgh was a good idea?

Why didn't she stay in California and attend college?

Why didn't she consult the school counselors about get into a shared house situation or something?

Anonymous

Posted Oct 31 2011

Its so easy to say what someone should have done. Doing all of this judgement while sitting in front of your Mac sipping on some Starbucks. Wasting money! people make mistakes; period! Hopefully she will learn from them and become successful.

Anonymous

Posted Mar 21 2012

Actually, there is not a lot of help out there. Everyone thinks there are these great programs and the worse off you are the more you are going to get. You do a lot of paper work for nothing! Some people get a lot of help from the "system" because they have an in. Most people from all kinds of back grounds are just stuck. Don't rock the boat and try to stay in school or employed. At least try not to give up. This doesn't look like fun! I hope thing improve for her soon.

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