Celena: My name is Celena. I am 33 years old. Back in 1999 was when I became homeless, and my story can work on both ways because I was a person who was in church, but not in church. And sometimes God will get tired of you playing games with him, and he’ll make a believer out of you. So that’s really what happened to me because I wanted to live on both sides of the fence. I wanted to club and party but at the same time go and sing in the choir on Sunday. You know what I’m saying? You know how it is. And I…God had just blessed me with a good job at Greenville Hospital. I was making $13 an hour, coming from Spartanburg Regional making just 9. Going there doing the same thing and making 13, being a single parent. And he had blessed me with a car before I had got the job at Greenville Hospital. I got a car with no job. You know that’s not possible. You know what I’m saying. So you know. It’s not possible. No paycheck stub, no job, and I got a car. But He just blessed with me that car, and I only had a year to pay on that car. So I was doing good on my job. I was still wildin’ out. And it was one Sunday, I had came from church, which I had showed out on my so-called boyfriend that night. But I had went to church, and the first time I heard God speak to me was personally was take my kids home when I was going up 85. I was like, take my kids home, take my kids home. So, I took my kids home. I was obedient for the first time in my life. And I was coming back down 290, and this little lady kept looking at me. And I had a car accident. And if my kids had been in the car with me, they probably would have been dead. And I remember the minister had told me two weeks before that, he said, “What is it going to take for you? Is it going to take God taking His hands off you? Is it going to take for God to take your kids for you to do right?” I was like, “No, Sir.” You know how you listen, but you don’t listen, because I was young, you know? I was young, like, I got all the time in the world, you know. I can play, and I got all the time in the world to be with God. And I thought about that when I had the car accident. And I looked over the passenger side seat, and my car was crushed all the way up to the middle. And I was like okay, God, whatever you do, just please don’t take my kids. He honored that. Two weeks, everything was gone. My job was gone. My car was gone. The man who hit me, his insurance company didn’t give me a rental car but for one week, and I worked all the way in Greenville. I lived in Duncan. So that was gone. Me and my kids lived in a hotel for two months off of my last two paychecks from Greenville Hospital. I went to go sign up for my unemployment. They denied me. I went to DSS. They knew where I was staying at, you know, I told them everything. They wouldn’t give me no help, no food stamps, no nothing. So my kids had missed like days out of school, and I was like, oh my God, they’re going to come and take my kids away from me because I couldn’t get them all the way back to Duncan. You know, so finally I called my daughter’s godmother, and we got them at Pine Street. And she would come and pick them up from the hotel and take them to school for me. And then the money ran out for the hotel, and I was like, what am I going to do? So I finally went to the shelter. So I went to the shelter, and I was very disgusted, very depressed. So when I was in that room, you know, thoughts of suicide was going through my head, you know. If I kill myself, who’s going to take care of my kids? So I’ll just kill my kids, then I’ll kill myself. But that wasn’t in me to do that. You know what I’m saying? You get all kind of crazy thoughts in your head when you just don’t know what to do. You know, there’s no other way to go, what am I going to do? I just thought I was going to lose my mind. And, you know, here I was, I was independent, you know, taking care of my kids by myself. Nobody else was going to do it. So I was like, okay now, what am I going to do? So, I went to the shelter, and I stayed at the shelter one day shorter than a year. And this lady named Miss Patty Kelly…have y’all ever heard of Miss Patty Kelly? She has a furniture ministry. I forgot which church she goes to. It’s one of the First Baptist’s. I don’t know which one, or if she still goes there. But she has a furniture ministry, and she used to come and do devotion at the shelter. Very sweet woman, and she told me about the Upstate Homeless Coalition. So that’s when I called Glenda, and that’s when I had got, you know, access to that. And I did all my stuff, and I still think it was like maybe three months…before I called Glenda I got a job, and that’s when I was working at the Dialysis Clinic. And even trying to get a job, and you use the shelter as your address, nobody will hire you. Because they think everybody that stays in a homeless shelter is either on drugs, prostitute, you been in prison, or you got this horrible background that nobody wants to deal with you. You see what I’m saying? So that was an obstacle because it took me the longest. I know I was qualified for certain jobs. You know what I’m saying? So I got smart. I said okay. I use my mama’s P.O. box. That’s when I got hired. You know, but when you’re there, you know, what other address and what other phone number are you going to use to get contacted? You know, if you don’t have money for a cell phone, I mean you out of luck. But when people look at those applications, even now I go back to the homeless shelter and do a Bible study and it’s like, “we can’t find jobs.” I say, “Stop using this address.” They stop using the address, most of them have jobs now. And it’s sad. You know what I’m saying? That you would look at one address, but you really haven’t got to know me.

UHC: What address were you using?
Celena: The 189 N. Church Street. The one to the shelter. Used to be Downtown Rescue Mission, but now it’s Miracle Hill.

UHC: You say they stopped using that, and then they were able to get jobs?
Celena: I don’t know whose address they were using. Maybe they were using like a friend or family member’s. But once they stopped using that address then they begin to get employment even through temporary agency. So you know people look at that. Because I remember one time we were there at the shelter, and it was on a Saturday and Spartanburg Methodist would bring in a group of kids to come in and do, I guess it was their Christian outreach thing. And one of the guys he was different from the other lady that used to bring them out. He was like, “Look at these people. They were dropped off here by families or the cops, and they’re out of prison. And they’ve been prostitutes on the street, and some of them have killed people.” And we was looking around like “What is he saying?” (She laughs.) You know? Who is he relating to because that’s not us. And we laughed. And one of the little guys that always came before, he came over, you know. He would sit down and chit-chat with us because I was silly. I like to act silly, and I said, “Will you please tell all your friends, you know, that that’s not, some people just have misfortunes in life, you know.” And he was like, “We don’t pay him any attention.” But some of the kids actually really scared some of the kids, because they was like, “Oh my God, I can’t go over there and talk to them.” You know, [??] if I had went somewhere like that [?] I ain’t going over there and talking to them. That’s how people label homeless people. Everybody that’s homeless has not been on drugs. Everybody, you know, some people just messed up. I mean, you know, because if I don’t have money saved, then I’m still just one paycheck away from being homeless. You know what I’m saying? So, that’s with anybody. People don’t ever realize it and look at it that way, but if you ain’t got enough money to sustain you until you find another job, you’re one step away. And what if I come home and my house is burned down?

UHC2: Now how did you lose your job at Greenville Hospital?
Celena: Because I didn’t have transportation to get back and forth so when I did get a ride sometimes I was late. And you know it was still in my 90-day probationary period. So I had a car accident in my 90-day probationary period. I messed up my ankle, then I had to go back and forth to the doctor. So they were looking at all of that. So, you know, instead of excusing because it was a car accident, they labeled that as me missing too many days in my 90 day probationary period.

UHC2: You said that you went to DSS and tried to get food stamps, and they denied you?
Celena: Uh-hmm.

UHC2: Why did they deny you?
Celena: I have no clue. You know, and she knew where I lived. So the only other obstacle I can say is that God closed doors until you get yourself right. You know that’s the only way because even when I went to the shelter, and it was like that first night and I was like, “God, I’m at my lowest point in life. You know I have nobody but You to depend on.” I didn’t have to go back to DSS. The next day I went back and checked my EBT card, and it had almost $900 worth of food stamps on it. And she denied me. So I can only say it was by the grace of God.

UHC: She denied you?
Celena: She denied me. Yeah. I just checked it. They never sent me anything in the mail saying they’re going to approve or anything. I just checked, and it was there. That’s the only explanation I can give anybody is that God did it. Even when my unemployment they denied me. Soon as that next day after the food stamps I got three unemployment checks in the mail. Three. And they had denied me. So I couldn’t, there was no explanation for it because I called and asked them did they make a mistake. And they was like, no you were approved, but when I was in the office you told me I wasn’t approved. So that’s the only explanation I got. And I collected my unemployment for a year. Well not for a year, for about six months until I found a job.

UHC: And you said that the job that you found was with the Dialysis Center?
Celena: The Dialysis Clinic. Uh-hmm.

UHC: And where is that?
Celena: It’s on Triad Street. Up highway 29, off of, right by Reeves Bros, like you’re turning out to go to Reeves Bros. That’s the Dialysis Clinic right there on the corner. So it’s right there.

UHC: Were you in dialysis work before?
Celena: No, just in the health field. They trained me as a nurse and secretary. But I always did, when I first started out, I started working in the emergency room in Spartanburg Regional. So I had the, some of the medical background, but not the extensive medical background that they needed. So they trained me. So once I got that training I left there, and then I came back, I think I went to Mary Black in orthopedics. Then after I left orthopedics I came back to Spartanburg Regional.

UHC2: How did homelessness affect your children?
Celena: Their grades went down. My son is very…they are very intelligent kids. My son…Cece [her youngest daughter] was too little to remember a lot of things.

UHC: This was from ’99 to 2000?
Celena: Yes. She was a baby. She was only one when I became homeless. And his grades went down, because that’s my boy, you know. And my middle one, that’s my girl, but she’s like that nonchalant, she don’t show her feelings on the outside, and he was worried about his mama. That’s just a boy’s instinct to worry about their mom. But after, you know, we got to the shelter, even going to the shelter, they were an inspiration to me because they didn’t mind. I was the one who had a problem with it. You know what I’m saying? And it was like, okay, let your kids be an example. And, you know, my daughter go back to school, “Oh we live in this big house with a whole bunch of people. We got a big family.” I’m like, you don’t tell people where you live at, you know, because you know some people stipulate that. And they were going to Pine Street so I was like, “Hush your mouth. You don’t go back and tell because they’ll make you move.” You know, because we weren’t in their district anymore.

UHC: Where were they going?
Celena: To Pine Street. Yeah, because see, when we were at the hotel that was in Pine Street school district, but the mission wasn’t in Pine Street school district. It was Cleveland and Jesse Boyd district.

UHC: So they had to move to…how many schools were they in within that given year?
Celena: Within that year, they left from Duncan Elementary to Pine Street, and I kept them in Pine Street. I wasn’t supposed to, but I kept them in Pine Street until we got our apartment, and I moved them to Jesse Bobo. So within that timeframe of being homeless, they went to two different schools. Because I was the kind of mother, I didn’t want them switching a whole lot of schools. You know what I’m saying? Because trying to friends and trying settle in, it’s not good for young kids. So that part was we were fine on. Once we got leveled and in the shelter, their grades went back up. So it was like just that time frame that everything was shaky. Because kids know when stuff is wrong with their parents. I mean, they know. They know now, if I walk in they go “What’s wrong, Mama? Did you have a hard day?” They know. But that part, they went to two different schools. Cece was too little. My poor baby. I had to potty train her early because I couldn’t afford Pampers. So she was only one. So she got potty trained when she was about 16 months old. Yeah. So it was a time.

UHC: So, let’s try to pin down some of the specifics in terms of the timeline. The car accident happened, and then you said around, it took about 2 months for…
Celena: The money to run out?

UHC: The money to run out. So you couldn’t stay in your apartment. And then you moved into the hotel?
Celena: No. When I…what happened was, when I had the car accident, me and my best friend, we were roommates.

UHC: Okay.
Celena: So I knew when I didn’t have a job, you know, that was going to cause confusion. So, because there was already some confusion there anyway, because I was paying all the bills and she wasn’t paying her part. So I left. Because I knew once I didn’t have a job, I didn’t need to be staying there because I couldn’t afford to pay. Because I was paying most of the bills anyway, I knew I couldn’t afford to keep paying them by myself, and not have anything. So I left and went to the hotel. She later on got put out because she wasn’t disciplined. She wasn’t responsible enough to pay bills, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. (She laughs.) But that’s when I went to the hotel, and that’s when I, you know, lapsed out the last two paychecks as much as I could. And I tell you what, before I went to the mission I stayed with a friend girl of mine for a little bit. And then I went back to the hotel when I had got some money. I had saved up some money. And then that’s when that money run out. Then I went to the shelter. Now she was a friend. She’s dead now. She died last year of cancer, breast cancer. But she was a true friend, because she was like, [?], but you know she was having it hard too, because she was a single parent. So I didn’t want to put no more on her than she already had, you know, with her kids and everything.

UHC: So after the second time in the hotel you went back to the mission?
Celena: No, I never went to the mission before. I was dead set on it, I was not going. I was dead set I was not going to no shelter because I didn’t know what kind of people was up in there. And I was taking my kids, because you see I had the same mentality that the man from Spartanburg Methodist had. You see what I’m saying? So sometimes God have to do things and show you. You know I call it putting the smack down on you to give you a little touch of reality because I tell people God will put the smack down on you. If He want to get you, he get you, you know. But when I first went there, and I was like “oh God.” I keeping my kids up under me. “Y’all don’t go nowhere without me. And you don’t do this without me.” And I go to the bathroom with them and we go, but you know, but the kids had to stay with you anyway at the shelter. So you know they couldn’t be off by themselves because of you know stuff like that. But it was like I was just [?] when I got there, it was so nice, you know what I’m saying? It was very nice. It was, you know how you just look from the outside and you think oh my God, you know, what’s going on? But it was really nice, because we had our own room. They put us three beds in one room. We had our own little chest of drawers, our own little, you know closet and what not. You stayed in your rooms. It’s not like that now. Now it’s more like an open space, and they’re all bunks. So we had it made. Because when you got little kids, you know you don’t want to get on people’s nerves. Because Cece cried all the time. She was a crybaby. Whoa, she cried all the time. But it was better then, because you had your own private space. You had the day room, and then you could have a tv in your room as long as you paid to have a tv in your room once you had the money to do it. But it was a whole lot nicer than what I expected it to be. And I met some good people in there. I met some lifetime friends in there. So it was…it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. You know, but at the same time, I didn’t want to get comfortable, because then there was no stipulation to how long you could stay there. Because there was one woman who had been living there for seven years. I mean she had it set up like it was her own apartment in her room. But you know her grandkids would visit her on the weekend. But, you know, I was like, okay, this is not going to be my home forever.

UHC: Did you have to pay anything to stay there? Because I know some places you have to pay.
Celena: Oh yeah. You work, well, even if you got a welfare check, you paid to stay there. When you work, when I started working I paid more to stay there then I did to pay them for rent a month. So I paid them $150 every two weeks when I got paid at the shelter. We had to be in by 5:15. You could not go back out after 5:15. Saturdays you got to stay out ‘til 6. Sundays after church, you could not go back out. So you were stuck there. Now they got a little bit more leeway. They can go out until 9 o’clock and come back in at 9. You know weekends they can stay out. They can even get weekend passes now. They gave me a pass one time so I could go see my baby sister graduate from her Air Force boot camp. And so they let me go to Texas. It was hard to get their approval, but they let me go to Texas to go see her graduate from boot camp. But it was…it’s totally different now than it was then. Because it was more stricter rules than when I lived there. But yeah, you paid.

UHC2: Do you think there are a lot of resources for homeless people in Spartanburg?
Celena: No. Not enough.

UHC: What are the resources that are lacking the most thinking back on it?
Celena: Being a single parent, my obstacle was transportation and daycare. Daycare is so expensive. And even though you get the ABC voucher, they only give it to you for 2 years. You know what I’m saying?

UHC: What are ABC vouchers?
Celena: Where they’ll pay for your kids to go to daycare. You only get it for two years. Okay, saying when my two years was up and when I was working at DC I was only making $9.80 an hour. With three kids, you got…because once you get that there are no more food stamps. And there’s no more food stamps. You still got your Medicaid, but after that if you got rent, even though we still wasn’t paying the full rent to the Upstate Homeless Coalition. I mean that’s…the Upstate Homeless Coalition is a very good program, very good program. After that you, you know, if you have a car payment, because you got to have transportation to get back and forth to work, gas, insurance, phone, you know you got to keep that, daycare for her because she was full-time daycare when I was up under the program because she was just two then. She was three, three to four. It was eighty-something dollars a week just for her. Just for her. And it’s probably even more than that now, because that’s back, we talking about 2000. It’s 2008 now. It was eighty-something dollars just for her a week. I got paid every two weeks. You see what I’m saying? So once they, the older two for the after school program, it was like, almost $50 a piece for them. So I’m looking at almost $200 a week just for daycare. It’s not including rent, gas, light bill, you know what I’m saying? Even though I didn’t have to pay my light bill up under the Upstate Homeless Coalition, which was a blessing, you know, but when all that was over, you see what I’m saying? I would have had all these expenses. I would have had $500 rent, the $200 car payment, the hundred-and-something money insurance, plus daycare. How? Plus groceries? How? And now they got an extra tax on groceries, I mean, how? I mean with growing kids, you know it’s like, you rob Peter to pay Paul every moment if you don’t have. Because it’s like now, still I’m married, I work two jobs, really I work three. My husband works two. I mean you know, so, it’s like, and then you got kids that’s in sports, you know if you want to have a little bit extra to do stuff with them you got to, got to work. And I work at Spartanburg Regional. I work at the Spartanburg Children’s Shelter on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, just two days. But I also do hair. So when I get off at Spartanburg Regional, I’m going to the shop to do hair. When I leave the shop to do hair on the weekend, I’m going there to 11:00 at night. Sunday I go to church. After church, I come here, and then I go there until 11:00 at night. And then Monday it’s time to go back to work and start all over again. Too much. It’s too much. And my husband works all day Wal-mart part time. Then you get your little two days off a week at Wal-mart, but still you got other stuff to do. So you’re making up for the time when you ain’t had everything else to do. So there’s really like…But it’s all, even now him and I we don’t have that many bills. That’s the smart thing. When you grow up, don’t make bills. Don’t make bills. Seriously. And learn how to save. Even now, like I’ve been trying to teach my kids, save your money. Just because you want something don’t mean you have to spend your money on everything, you know what I’m saying? Not right now, anyway, you know you got it, and you got extra, and you know you still can put back, then you do it. Because that was one of the stipulations up under the Upstate Homeless Coalition was getting out of debt and saving your money. And it seemed like every time I saved, every time I saved, something would go up wrong with the car where you got to go get the car repaired. Or you got to get this, or you got to get this and it take up all your little savings, and it’s just like when the program was gone, it’s like okay, back to reality now. You know what I’m saying? So it’s like even now I don’t have, like I said, I don’t have that many bills. It’s just stuff that I want to continue to keep paying off my credit. Always keep your credit good. Credit cards leave them alone. Maybe one for emergencies. That’s it. But I’m serious. I’m very serious. That’s what I’m teaching my kids.