The following article lays out the account of one mother’s ‘bad luck’ after the other: Homeless Mother Gets Job Interview But Doesn’t Have Childcare, Ends Up In Jail

She is a mother of two, homeless, unemployed and finds herself having a chance for a job. Not having a home, she cannot leave her children at home while she attends the job interview. Not having money, she is unable to afford childcare while she attends the job interview. So she does the only thing she can do in her situation: leave the children in the car with the window cracked open while she attends the job interview.

“Taylor was charged with two felony counts of child abuse for leaving her six-month-old and two-year-old in a car with the windows cracked last Thursday for at least 45 minutes as she sat in an interview for a potential job. She told officers that she was homeless, so she couldn’t leave her children in the house, and she had no one else to watch them.”

Yes, what she did was dangerous, creating conditions which could have led to a fatal outcome. But like the article states: “Taylor’s story raises an important issue: People in her situation are left with only bad options. “Just as she set up the conditions for possible harm for her children by leaving them in the car, so is the system and society guilty as a whole for creating the conditions in which people’s hands are forced to make ‘bad decision’ and forced to choose between lesser evils.

Once landed in a bad position, it can be hard to move out if it, as one’s dysfunctional reality is set up to maintain itself as just that: dysfunctional.

“Homeless people also struggle with more than child care when looking for work — they can have difficulty finding an internet connection to apply to job or transportation to get to interviews, clean clothes, or a place to put their belongings. And once they land a job offer, they can run into even more problems, especially if they don’t have things like an ID or birth certificate. It’s a vicious cycle; not having a job perpetuates homelessness, which can in turn make it even harder to find a job.”

What this story tells us, is that in how we are currently running our society and economic lives – you need money in order to make money. If you do not have money to clothe yourself, feed yourself, take care of basic hygiene, have a roof over your head; then it is very unlikely that you will be able to move into a position that will enable you to attain a dignified living standard. It’s kind of a Catch-22 in the land of the economically underprivileged.

How do we break this self-perpetuating cycle? With a Living Income Guaranteed of course.

If this woman would have had a Living Income disposable to herself, she would a) have had the option to stay at home and take care of her kids or b) pay for child care to give her the time and space to get employment.Not only is a Living Income Guaranteed instrumental to ending homelessness, a manifestation which puts to question our solidarity and should really have been eradicated already ages ago; it is also a cost-saver.

“It is cheaper to give homeless people a home than it is to leave them on the streets.That’s not just the opinion of advocates working to end homelessness, nor is it the opinion of homeless people themselves. It is a fact that has been borne out by studies across the country, from Florida to Colorado and beyond.The latest analysis to back up this fact comes out of Charlotte, where researchers from the University of North Carolina Charlotte examined a recently constructed apartment complex that was oriented towards homeless people.Moore Place opened in 2012 with 85 units. Each resident is required to contribute 30 percent of his or her income, which includes any benefits like disability, veterans, or Social Security, toward rent. The rest of the housing costs, which total approximately $14,000 per person annually, are covered by a mix of local and federal government grants, as well as private donors.In the first year alone, researchers found that Moore Place saved taxpayers $1.8 million. These savings comes from improvements in two primary areas: health care and incarceration.”

From: It Saves Millions To Simply Give Homeless People A Place To Live

Both humanitarian and economic motives for a better world, come together within a Living Income Guaranteed. We can reduce social misery, improve human dignity and security and boost the economy – all in the same package. We’d be crazy not to.

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed Proposal and Join us for discussion.