I’m not sure where Josh and his three daughters — an 8-year-old and 5-year-old twins — will sleep tonight.
More frightening, neither does he. He only knows he won’t be separated from them.
The 32-year-old Akron man — who was awarded temporary emergency custody after the children’s mother fell down on the job, as it were, and they were found to be in harm’s way — was discharged from his night-shift factory job after too many absences, all related to his children.
A snowball effect ensued. He used the rent/utility money to feed his children and ended up being evicted.
With no other place to go, they moved in with his mother in senior housing while he looked for work. “But they can only stay with her a maximum of 14 days per six months,” a friend of the mother said. Now that time is up, and they were forced to leave or risk her being evicted on a rules violation.
No other family is able or willing to take them in. So Josh’s situation is getting more desperate by the hour, especially with school starting next week.
Unfortunately, there are no identifiable places to stay for fathers alone, down on their luck, with children. Josh has checked. And I have checked.
While there are separate shelters for homeless men, homeless women, battered women, and homeless/battered women with children, there’s no place specifically for fathers with children who find themselves in a housing crisis.
There is Summit County’s Family Promise, a port in the storm for households in crisis that gives them temporary shelter in various houses of faith. At this writing, Josh and his daughters are staying at a church in Hudson.
Here’s Josh’s back story, in the event anyone has any ideas to help.
Josh and the children’s mother were never married. After their relationship ended two years ago, she maintained custody and he paid child support. “For the longest time, I didn’t know where she was,” he said. “I came home one day and everything was gone except for my clothes and the dog. … She just ran off with the kids.”
She left in September 2010 and it was the following March, he said, before he heard anything. “She called to let me know that the state would be filing for child support.” That translated to $350 a month.
He had no problem with that, he said, as long as his children were properly cared for and safe.
But the mother “has lots of issues,” Josh said, not wanting to elaborate.
Two of the children were treated at Akron Children’s Hospital for second-degree burns. He was told boiling water was the cause. One of the girls spent a month in the Burn Center and required skin grafts.
Another time one of the girls had a “crusty ear infection that required three different antibiotics.”
“Enough was enough,” an emotionally spent Josh continued, “so I applied for custody.”
The mother — who like the father and the children, isn’t being named here — has had no contact with the children, Josh said, since they were removed from her custody, even though the court granted her supervised visits. She’s not interviewed here because I don’t have contact information for her.
Since being granted temporary emergency custody, Josh said, he applied for food stamps through Job & Family Services only to find out he won’t be eligible for another month because the mother is currently receiving that allotment.
“Everywhere he goes he gets doors slammed in his face,” said Josh’s mother, who was on the verge of tearing up. “I’ve tried to help as much as I can. But I only get $30 a month in food stamps myself.
“He’s never been in trouble. He’s just trying to take care of his girls as best he can. Yet, he’s encountered barrier after barrier. I want to get him some help, some direction. … I know he can’t be the only one.”
To provide his girls some measure of normalcy, Josh said he applied for open enrollment at an elementary school in the Ellet area, where he has friends who are willing to baby-sit if needed and where he would like to find housing.
“The school was saving three spots but the Board of Education claimed they’re full. This is such a big headache!” he said. “Family is everything to me.”
Chris Gardner — homeless-father-turned-author of The Pursuit of Happyness, which was made into a movie starring Will Smith — said the same when I interviewed him five years ago: “Family is everything.”
“Sometimes life just happens,” Gardner said, adding that the biggest expense for him was day care.
Like Gardner, Josh is intent on breaking the cycle of men who are not there for their children. He just needs a leg up.
“I’m trying to stay positive,” the obviously burdened Josh said. “But it’s not easy.
“I’ve called all of the numbers on the Akron Street Card [a guide to local community resources] and I haven’t gotten anywhere yet.”
Anyone with any job prospects that would lead to him getting permanent housing, please call me or email me as soon as possible.
Jewell Cardwell can be reached at 330-996-3567 or jcardwell@thebeaconjournal.com.