The fight to overcome poverty and homelessness

Every day for the past four years, I have woken up with the same thought: is this the week that my girls and I will finally have a home of our own?

I’m the father of 3 daughters who are 24, 18 and 14 and the grandfather of a 9-month-old baby girl. We have been living in a homeless shelter in the Bronx for the last three years. For the last two years, I have worked as a porter—doing cleaning and some very basic repairs—at an affordable housing complex called Courtlandt Corners that was developed by Phipps Houses, a non-profit affordable housing developer, in the Bronx. Still, I have not been able to get my family out of the shelter.

Living in a shelter and working in an affordable housing complex, I know that many New Yorkers struggle to find affordable housing. I have learned that what counts as affordable housing is only affordable if you have a good job.

I take a lot of pride in my job and I like the people I work with but I do not make enough to find decent affordable housing for my family of five. In fact, I earn way too little working at Courtlandt Corners to afford an apartment there.

That’s because my employer only pays me $13 an hour. When I started in June of 2015 I was only making $11.50 an hour but less than a year later I was promoted to lead porter and I got a $1.50 raise. I still don’t receive any meaningful benefits.

This is not enough for us to get by. My girls are relying on me. My paycheck isn’t enough to cover food, diapers and rent on a decent apartment for five people. With no meaningful health benefits at my job, we also have to rely on Medicaid for our health care.

My daughters have big dreams. The youngest two love animals and both dream of going to college and becoming veterinarians. I wonder how I will help them pay for college. They also dream that we’ll move into an apartment of our own where they can have a pet—maybe a bunny or a dog– but right now, even a small thing like a pet feels completely out of reach.

It doesn’t feel good to work so hard for so little. When I first heard about this job, I jumped on it quick because it was close to where I was living and I thought it would be a good job that would get us out of the shelter soon. I really liked the idea of working in a place where I could help other working families like my own have a nice place to live. The company even says that it “works toward a New York City in which no one is caught in a cycle of poverty.”

But here I am almost 2 years later working in one of their developments. My family and I are trapped in a cycle of poverty and homelessness that we can’t get out of unless I earn higher wages and better benefits.

My coworkers and I recently joined together to fight for better jobs at Courtlandt Corners. I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to get higher wages with regular increases, good health insurance and retirement benefits and access to training that will allow me to advance in my career.

We’re asking Phipps Houses to commit to being a responsible employer and make sure they’re creating good jobs. I want this for my site at Courtlandt Corners and I want it for other workers in the Bronx and throughout the city who are also struggling to make ends meet.

This is the way that we can break the cycle of poverty and provide a bright future to our kids and grandkids.

-Carmelo DeJesus is a porter in the Bronx.