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Homelessness in Pulaski County is a little known problem, but seems to be growing at an alarming rate."
Emergency Services Coordinator Vicky Hurlbutt said at a recent meeting of the Pulaski County Community Network, “I would have been hard -pressed to hear the word homeless once a month five years ago, now I hear it several times a week.”
This statement prompted an investigation into the problem here in Pulaski County by the Daily Guide. The Daily Guide asked Good Samaritan Resource Center to track homeless situations over a two week period in the month of December. The results will be addressed in-depth in the next article in this series, but something that stood out was how much of a factor domestic violence was in these situations.
Shirley Mitchell, a well-known member of the community, volunteered to tell her story as a way to show how domestic violence is a major contributing factor to the homelessness experienced here in Pulaski County.
Mitchell is a survivor of domestic violence and homelessness. Mitchell said there was a period of around four years when she and her children were chronically homeless.“
He was constantly throwing us out or we were leaving,” Mitchell said.
She said she would spend months at a time living on friends and family's couches or in her car before she finally entered a shelter for the first time.
Shirley's first stay with Genesis wasn't successful. She said she left too soon and it was too easy to fall back into the habit of staying with her ex-husband.
“It was just easy to let the kids stay with him when I was working and then become convinced to stay,” Mitchell said.
When asked why she kept going back, her answer was a desire to keep the family together, finances and security. She said she convinced herself that her situation wasn't that bad and her children needed a father.
“You think you can love them out of it,” Mitchell said. “Then there comes a point when you don't want your children to be put through that.”
After ten years of abuse including four years of chronic homelessness, Mitchell entered Genesis House the second time and left domestic violence for good.
Mitchell credits her success at “getting her life together” to Genesis House and Jesus.
Genesis House offers a program that includes counseling, financial planning, help finding and keeping a job, legal help and support while women and their children are working to get on their feet.
Homelessness in Pulaski County is a little known problem, but seems to be growing at an alarming rate."
Emergency Services Coordinator Vicky Hurlbutt said at a recent meeting of the Pulaski County Community Network, “I would have been hard -pressed to hear the word homeless once a month five years ago, now I hear it several times a week.”
This statement prompted an investigation into the problem here in Pulaski County by the Daily Guide. The Daily Guide asked Good Samaritan Resource Center to track homeless situations over a two week period in the month of December. The results will be addressed in-depth in the next article in this series, but something that stood out was how much of a factor domestic violence was in these situations.
Shirley Mitchell, a well-known member of the community, volunteered to tell her story as a way to show how domestic violence is a major contributing factor to the homelessness experienced here in Pulaski County.
Mitchell is a survivor of domestic violence and homelessness. Mitchell said there was a period of around four years when she and her children were chronically homeless.“
He was constantly throwing us out or we were leaving,” Mitchell said.
She said she would spend months at a time living on friends and family's couches or in her car before she finally entered a shelter for the first time.
Shirley's first stay with Genesis wasn't successful. She said she left too soon and it was too easy to fall back into the habit of staying with her ex-husband.
“It was just easy to let the kids stay with him when I was working and then become convinced to stay,” Mitchell said.
When asked why she kept going back, her answer was a desire to keep the family together, finances and security. She said she convinced herself that her situation wasn't that bad and her children needed a father.
“You think you can love them out of it,” Mitchell said. “Then there comes a point when you don't want your children to be put through that.”
After ten years of abuse including four years of chronic homelessness, Mitchell entered Genesis House the second time and left domestic violence for good.
Mitchell credits her success at “getting her life together” to Genesis House and Jesus.
Genesis House offers a program that includes counseling, financial planning, help finding and keeping a job, legal help and support while women and their children are working to get on their feet.
Mitchell said she stayed at Genesis for about nine months the second time she was there, working the program, saving money and working to get on her feet.
Mitchell is currently the manager of Good Samaritan Resource Center and says she hears stories like her own all of the time.
“There's a lot of people out there that are sleeping on somebody's couch or sleeping on their floor or in their car. We're seeing more and more three and four families living together to make the bills and you're talking nine or ten people in a two bedroom house,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said she believes people don't realize that domestic violence and homelessness go hand in hand because when a mother and her children leave, they often do not have a place to go pointing to herself as an example.
She said the affects of domestic violence and homelessness stay with you long after you are out of the situation.
