Portraits of Home Exhibit Generates Local Discussion
The Greater Minnesota Housing Fund Portraits of Home photography exhibit is a compelling depiction of the poor housing conditions in Greater Minnesota.
The exhibit will be available to communities across the state through 2007. To learn how to bring the exhibit to your area, visit Greater Minnesota Housing Fund.
The traveling exhibit has been on the Iron Range for the past month, and the Coalition worked with local organizations to use the portraits as an opportunity to educate the community about housing and homelessness.
We participated in media events and a soup dinner fundraiser for the local homeless shelter in Virginia where community members could also pick up information on local homelessness and view the photos.
In Hibbing, we cosponsored a panel discussion on housing and homeless issues to highlight the exhibit. The panelists shared their struggles and hopes and dreams; here are excerpts:
- Jeralee:
- Josh:
- Melisa:
- Dawn:
- Ellen (73-years old):
- “Five years had seemed like eternity when I first got on welfare after my daughter was born. I was shocked and surprised and totally unprepared when my time limit hit at the same time I had my third child. It became a full-time job to figure out how to live on the $120 per month I got for child support.
I have two years now until my youngest is in school. I’m back on MFIP now because of a medical exemption and I’ve had to fill out an application for Social Security. I don’t want to be on welfare or on social security. I’m a bright young woman; I’ve got brains and I’ve got energy. I want a decent job with benefits and a chance to grow; but those kinds of jobs require college. And I can’t go to college until my youngest starts school because I cannot afford childcare. I can’t get a job either because childcare costs more than most jobs pay.”
- “I re-enlisted as Active Duty in March of 2002. Shortly thereafter, I received a notice of deployment to Iraq, and got a three-day leave pass to go say good-bye to friends and family. While visiting my dad in Fresno, California, I got in a car accident and went to the hospital unable to breathe very well and could hardly walk.
I spent the next two days in the hospital with fractured ribs and a concussion. Because I was in the hospital and without transportation, I got an Article 15, with a fine and community service for being AWOL.”
- “I was a troubled child and too much for my mother to handle, so I spent years in various foster homes. I stayed at each placement for about one year before I either ran away or was placed in another home.
Although my home life was difficult, I went to school regularly and took college classes while I was in high school. I looked forward to starting my own greenhouse and landscaping business.
But my senior year of high school those plans changed when I got pregnant. I couldn’t even consider abortion or adoption – I don’t have any judgment against people who do, I just know that’s not a choice for me.
There are consequences for your actions, and my consequence for screwing around was that I had the responsibilities of being a parent. I am hopeful that my children will not get pregnant when they’re young. I talk to them about that all the time. I want them to be independent and able to explore all the opportunities available to them. I want them to grow up to be the best people they can be.
We got a rough start, but with the help of programs along the way, we’re back on our feet. My one wish would be that we could get these programs adequately funded, so they can hire good staff, people who want to do this hard work, because that’s the only way we’re going to help people succeed.”
- “I don’t know if you’ve heard the thing about how if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it realizes right away that its in trouble and it struggles to escape; but if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, the frog will not realize it is in trouble until it is too late. That’s how domestic violence works.
I wouldn’t have married him if my husband had been abusive while we were dating. He wasn’t. He was a charming and generous man when we were dating; he was very good to me.
After we got married, he became less charming and slowly became jealous of things he thought I might be doing, that escalated into name-calling and verbal abuse; but I was still clinging to the memory of the kind and generous man I married and was sure he’d come back.
Then he started pushing me around and became more and more controlling, and by the time I realized I was in trouble, I was so brainwashed and scared that I couldn’t leave. He ended up going to jail and I went to a battered women’s safe home where my children and I were kept safe and got counseling from the advocates.
Part of his controlling behavior was to cripple me financially - he put me $36,000 in debt; I had to file for bankruptcy; there was no way my credit would allow me to get housing.
Fortunately I was able to work and was able to pull my life back together. Affordable housing is the most obvious need right now for women wishing to protect their children from their abusive partners.”
- “I had a psychologist who told me once that people who are abused as children sometimes get into abusive relationships. That was true for me.
But the abuse didn’t stop there. My aunt continued to abuse me throughout most of my life. And after I moved to Minnesota, my grand-daughter abused me physically. I took it for a while. I didn’t want to make waves. But in February of this year I couldn’t take it any longer.
My county worker told me to see Mikki at AEOA. Mikki got my son and I into a shelter apartment and she helped us get groceries and everything. And then she introduced me to Sandy at Range Transitional Housing who helped us get the apartment we are living in right now. Sandy was great about getting me a bed and furniture and everything we needed. I’m working on clearing up my credit history so that I can get into an apartment where I can just stay put.”
