For Shanell Carter, 27, the most important thing in life is her 6-year-old son.
“I care for him over all other things,” she said.
He was born prematurely at a time when Carter was homeless. The boy spent a month in the hospital connected to tubes and wires. When he was discharged, she said the doctors were aware of her living situation, but didn’t offer any useful advice.
“They just said: ‘Don’t sleep with him.’”
For a while, the two lived in a borrowed car, and Carter walked to work an hour each way, sometimes taking the infant with her. Three years ago, they moved from Greensboro to Roanoke, where they now receive subsidized housing, Medicaid coverage, and are enrolled in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
“I feel a little more relief here,” she said.
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Carter said she’s managed to get along well enough financially when working at jobs such as retail and factory work and day care.
“I have done so many things,” she said.
Until her son began attending school in August, Carter said, she was able to work because she had full-time day care for him. But afterschool care is difficult to find these days — regardless of household income — as workers have left the field for other jobs since the COVID-19 pandemic.
So she’s been unemployed since.
Carter said she has been applying for any job she can find that will allow her to during school hours. Her situation is complicated by the fact that she has little help from the few family members who live nearby.
Additionally, her son has severe asthma, which limits his activity and requires her to be available for medical appointments and personal care when he’s acutely ill.
“I’ve been on Indeed 24/7,” she said, referring to the online job search site. “I’m up all night applying for jobs.” But she isn’t getting returns calls after stipulating that she can only work during school day hours. That schedule doesn’t mesh with the service-oriented work she’s most often performed.
Carter has been on her own since she was 16 years old, and not working has been hard, she said. In fact, it’s provoked a bout of depression, for which she can’t find treatment, due to the expense and scarcity of providers.
That mental condition has complicated her job search. “I keep to myself. Sometimes, I don’t even want to leave the house,” she said.
One bright spot in her life, she said, was the time she spent volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. She enjoyed the physical work and was cheered by giving herself to the effort.
“I still like to help people,” she said.
Carter’s joblessness has strained her capacity to pay rent. Accustomed to supporting herself, Carter gets tired of the grind of poverty, and will sometimes spend money she can’t spare on toys and clothes for her son. These gifts are especially important, she said, because his asthma often keeps him from running and playing and participating in sports like other children.
“I can’t always get exactly what he wants, but I do what I can,” she said.
Carter said she didn’t get much of a boost from the federal COVID stimulus or child tax credit checks that temporarily buoyed many family budgets. Her day-to-day needs were such that the money was quickly spent. Most of her stimulus checks went toward the deposit on her current apartment, she said.
Last year, and then again in October, Carter sought help from the Roanoke Area Ministries organization. There, she was given a grant from the Emergency Financial Assistance Program, which is supported by The Roanoke Times’ Good Neighbors Fund. The program helps with rent, utilities and medications for those who have financial setbacks.
“They were very helpful,” she said, but the charity could not cover the full amount needed. Carter feels lucky that her landlord allows her to pay what she can when she can, but during each month in which she’s still behind, $50 is added to the total.
It’s almost impossible to get ahead, and there’s always the chance she might find herself homeless again.
Carter said when she was growing up, she did well in school and wanted to be a teacher. She graduated from high school, but never made it to college. Nevertheless, she is is full of ideas.
“I always thought work would be more than just a job,” she said.
She’d like to own her own house cleaning business, Carter said, but her depression and exhaustion have gotten in the way of following through with that notion. In addition to her other concerns, she worries about her son’s health, and gets up several times in the night to check on him. “ I don’t get much sleep,” she admitted.
Like most young women, Carter would like to be able to enjoy her life. Yet the constraints of poverty are trying. The things that are put on hold most often are those that involve self-care, such as getting her hair done.
“I don’t get to do anything,” she said, wistfully, but “I’m also tired of venting to people.”
Actually, that’s just part of a long list of things Carter is tired of.
“I’m tired of being upset. I’m tired of being depressed. I’m tired of worrying. I’m tired of crying. I just want it to stop,” she said, but the only way out “is to get a job. I want to pay off my rent.”