I recently worked with a client who had fallen behind on rent and became involved in a situation that encompassed many of the frustrations and social barriers that many low-income people face regularly. The story here is that the source of my client’s problems was SLUG, a program funded by the city to help the poor.
Peggy had recently been employed by the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG.). An organization who’s web site states that it “empowers communities and individuals with education and employment”. Peggy had been placed in this position by her employment worker as a step toward being able to leave the city’s welfare system. While employed by SLUG. Peggy was required to move extremely heavy objects at times dragging uprooted tree stumps with no back support provided. Peggy complained about these conditions but received no accommodation whatsoever.
Predictably, after a short period of time Peggy injured her arm at work, the next morning she was unable to move her affected arm properly; called in sick and went to see a doctor. Peggy returned to work the next day with a letter from her doctor stating that she would need modified work duty, and explaining her absence from work the day before. Before she was able to present this letter to SLUG.’s administrative assistant Peggy was handed a piece of paper explaining that she was being laid off. SLUG.’s explanation was that Peggy had previously been employed by SLUG years earlier and that they had recently made an organizational decision not to allow recidivism. SLUG.’s motivation was clearly to distance themselves from the cost of accommodating Peggy’s injured arm and from the potential cost of a disability claim.
These actions by SLUG made Peggy ineligible to receive welfare money for a period of 60 days after being laid off, leaving her completely without income and unable to pay her rent or buy food.
When Peggy and I began working together she was a month behind on rent, spending hours in line every day waiting for meals and feeling so frustrated and disrespected by her experience that she had little hope that she would be able to find any part of justice for herself.
With rent becoming a larger and larger issue Peggy began to get back on track. She got back on welare but at a lower level, which did not allow her any income after rent was paid so she was still without a means to buy food. After securing her rent payment Peggy filed a claim with the City Human Rights Commission, which agreed to look into her claim of discriminatory treatment by SLUG.
When the Human Rights Commission contacted SLUG. they were told that Peggy had not been laid off for an injury but because she had missed 5 weeks of work without an excused absence. At this point the Human Rights Commission dropped Peggy’s claim on the grounds that SLUG. had a right to fire Peggy for dereliction of her duties. Remarkably Peggy was not dissuaded by this new turn of events. She spent time tracking down her old pay stubs and was able to prove that she was in fact at work every day minus that single day that she had a doctors note for.
While it is often asked why homelessness exists or why poverty exits. Rarely is anyone willing to consider them as social issue and not individual problems. As social issues they take on whole new dimensions, if it is not considered an individual failing to be poor then it becomes easier to believe that poor people are as deserving of trust as affluent people. Had this been the case Peggy’s situation would never have approached the level that it did. If Peggy had been trusted when she said that her work environment was dangerous then she would not have been injured. If she had been believed when she told the Human Rights Commission that she had in fact fulfilled her work obligations she might still have a case against SLUG But because of the way society looks upon poverty and people who are forced to live in poverty she was not believed in either case.
While there aren’t any easy solutions to these problems, there are some easy steps. One of them is to stop allocating city money to organizations like SLUG who take advantage of people’s vulnerability. Had SLUG. treated Peggy with the respect that they would treat any individual not receiving public assistance money they would not have assumed that there would be no repercussions for firing her illegally or that they could lie about her employment record.
Actions like SLUG’s do nothing to solve the social problem of poverty or mitigate its effects on individuals but instead compound already existing social problems. It is situations like this that need to be analyzed when we talk about causes and sustainers of poverty.
Colin Bosio-Cady is a case manager at the Seneca Hotel
