Vocabulary

 

 
 
 
 
 

Video (First 8:30 minutes

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

 

We turn now to senior contributor Ted Koppel, who looks at a disturbing reality facing more working Americans than ever. Homelessness.

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Brian Goldstone, Author: “This intersection here, Memorial Drive and Canler Road. It’s like you’re crossing a threshold from this beautiful neighborhood, liberal arts college on that side, cafes, . . .and then you cross over and its dialysis centers, its liquor stores, its payday lenders.

Other areas of Atlanta are booming . . . but this area sort of stayed stuck in this period of decline.”

Brian Goldstone has devoted his book, which he calls There Is No Place for Us, to describing the challenges faced by literally millions of the working poor looking for a place to live.

We’re in Atlanta.

Brian Goldstone, Author: “The poor are out here on these peripheral areas.”

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Goldstone has spent the better part of six years trying to understand why so many people who work full-time jobs with low wages are homeless.

Brian Goldstone, Author: “The story we as a nation have told ourselves, that hard work is the key to success, that that work is an exit from poverty, not having a home, being homeless.

What these people show us is that there’s something profoundly not true about that story anymore.”

In the course of his reporting, Goldstone met Celeste, whose name he changed to preserve her privacy. Celeste has been known to work two and three jobs at a time to support her eight children; All but one are now adults.

She’s inspected boxes at a warehouse, worked at a fast food restaurant, even sold plates of food from her room.

She is resourceful.

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Celeste: “I was working in a corner store from the time I was 10 years old. It always gave me like a sense of pride to do a good job at whatever I’m doing.”

If she doesn’t have a car, she’ll walk to work. Sometimes that boils down to cleaning and tidying up a convenience shop. Just surviving is a constant struggle.

Celeste: “Cuz at one point my car was my roof. I slept in my car for a month.”
Reporter: “With the kids?
Celeste: “Yeah.”
Reporter: “That’s got to be tough.”
Celeste: “It was.”

What Celeste doesn’t have is a passing credit score.

Celeste: “I could have the most money, but if my credit score is in a 700, then you don’t want me in your property.”

What totally destroyed her credit score was when an ex-boyfriend set fire to the home that she and her children were renting.

Celeste: “Walking into that house was like walking into a black hole. We had nothing.”

Brian Goldstone: “What pushed her and her children into homelessness was the fact that this home was owned by a private equity firm who demanded that she pay rent for the current month’s rent and an additional month as well and she wouldn’t get her security deposit back.
This was to break the lease on this home that had burned down.”

The sheriff put an eviction notice in the mailbox of the uninhabitable house.

By the time Celeste found the notice . . .

Brian Goldstone: “The judge had handed down a default judgment. And by that point, her credit score had been destroyed.”

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Which is what brought Celeste, what brings so many desperate people, to what’s called an “extended stay hotel.”

Celeste lived here with two of her youngest children for about 3 months.

Journalist: “Now, what were you paying here?
Celeste: “520 a week.”
Journalist: “About 75 a day?”
Celeste: “Yep. And that’s only if you book online. Now, if you don’t book online and you have to pay them cash at the window, then you’re paying the $80 a day.”

Over the years, Celeste has lived in about half a dozen extended stays like this.

Reporter: “Extended stay. That sounds so elegant, doesn’t it?”
Celeste: “It does.
Reporter: “Come to our extended stay.”
Celeste: “Yes. And that’s how they advertise it, too. It actually says, ‘Come for a night. Stay for a while.’”
Reporter: “Tell me what’s wrong with the slogan.”
Celeste: “It’s a trap. A lot of the places are substandard. One of the places where I stayed, there was, you know, how you put the mats down in the bathtub to cover supposedly slipping or falling or anything?

Well, I pulled my mat up and there was a big hole in the tub. A lot of places have mold and mildew; they cause health problems. If you don’t have them already, you will develop them.”

Celeste was still living in an extended stay when things went from bad to a whole lot worse.

Reporter: “Celeste, at one point in there, you found out you had cancer.”
Celeste: “Mhm.”
Reporter: “What kind of cancer?”
Celeste: “Breast and ovarian.”
Celeste: “Why didn’t you go to the doctor?”

Celeste: “Life was lifing people who are the primary bread winners in a a low-income family. You can’t take the time off to go to the doctor because me missing a 10-hour shift at work, that’s the difference of me paying for my room that day. Of course, I want to keep a roof over my head. So, sick and all, I’m still going to go to work.

Journalist: “What struck me over and over again is just how incredibly resilient you were — even after the cancer. How? Why?”

Celeste: “Because that’s the face you have to show the world. There were many nights that I just was on my hands and knees praying and believing that God made me a promise and I was going to do my part because I knew he was going to do his.”

Many of these stories are variations on a similar theme and disproportionately they seem to impact people of color.

Ria, for example, has four children. In the last two years, she has lived with her kids in friends’ apartments, in her car, and most recently in extended stay hotel rooms.

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Ria: “Hello. This is where we stay.”
Reporter: “You didn’t get a hell of a lot of room, is it?”
Ria: “No. No.”
Reporter: “There’s not a single closet in the place, is there?”
Ria: “And this is the little bathroom that we share.”
Reporter: “You, three of the kids.”
Ria: “Three of the kids sleep in the bed. And the oldest one sleeps down there.” Reporter: “He’s got the best deal of all.”
Ria: “Yeah. I tried to get one of them to sleep with him, but they don’t want to. They all want to be piled in the bed with mom.”

Ria has been on her own with the kids since she left a domestic violence situation with the father of her children. Ria says he never abused the kids.

Reporter: “What about you?”
Ria: “Yes, he put his hands on me a couple times.”

Ria eventually got a temporary protective order. No more abuse, but also no more child support.

Ria: “He’s not allowed to be around me or the kids for two years. So, I can’t talk to him, his family, no one. So, everything is basically on me.”

Ria’s 20-year-old son helps where he can, working some overnight shifts at Amazon, but he also has a 7-year-old son with major medical issues.

Ria: “He was born with congested heart failure and he has severe asthma. I’ve been in and out of hospital with him three or four times a month. I’m in and out of ICU with him.”

And that makes it all but impossible to keep a full-time job. Ria struggles to pay $375 a week just for that extended stay room, working a patchwork of part-time jobs like driving for Uber.

Brian Goldstone, Author: “I think what was so shocking is that this kind of living situation is not cheaper than an apartment. It’s often double or even triple what an apartment down the street would cost.”

Reporter: “How do you explain that?”

Brian Goldstone, Author: “When people are desperate and those who own these properties know that there are people who are desperate, they will take advantage of that desperation.”

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Questions

 

Shack. In the US, only lazy individuals, drug addicts and those with mental illnesses do not have proper accommodation. True or false?

Cabin. Is Atlanta, Georgia, US a rich, prosperous city; or is it middle and working class; a poor, deprived city; or all of the above?

Cottage. According to American lore, what is the key to success, the “American Dream”? Is it universally true?

Farmhouse. Celeste has a steady, stable, full-time, permanent job. Is this right or wrong?

Family Home, Detached Home. Do all tenants in Atlanta simple pay rent on a month-to-month basis? Is it easy to find accommodation?

Mansion. Has Celeste lived at the same place for her entire adult life?

Low-Rise Apartment. “Celeste was still living in an extended stay when things went from bad to a whole lot worse.” What did the reporter mean by that?

Mid-rise Apartment. Does Ria have a “normal” family, living in a “family home”?
 
 
 
High Rise Apartment, Apartment Block. Is life in your town or city a) very easy, b) easy c) okay, in the middle, both easy and challenging d) difficult e) very difficult?

Motel. Is it easy to get a full-time, steady, permanent job?

Hotel. What can you say about housing in your city? Is it cheap, affordable, mid-priced, expensive, or very expensive?

Condominium. What might happen in the future?

Castle. What could or should people do?

Palace. What could or should governments and businesses do?