The Center for Hunger-Free Communities

Solutions Based on Science and the Human Experience

Judith R.

Judith R.
Witness Sites: 
Washington D.C.

Pollution

This is a major issue in DC. The government says they are trying to pick up the trash in the District. But each day when I walked by the trash was still there on the ground. Even though people were living and working in the area it seemed abandoned because of all the trash on the ground. Even though the government claims to be helping the environment, I never saw a street cleaning car or trash collecting car pass through there.

Something to Smile About

I was still homeless, I was still struggling to take my daughter to see a nanny so that I could go to work. I had to take a metro and a bus and the commute was difficult and I was feeling sad. But I looked in the mirror and thought to myself that there’s always something to smile about. Even though I was the one who was exhausted, my daughter was the one who was falling asleep, and that made me laugh.

Happiness

My daughter was really happy to be in a new environment. I wasn’t stressed out anymore, or moving from place to place. Each place had different problems. We both felt really at peace. We felt really blessed to be at a place where we felt safe and there wasn’t anybody treating us like we were nothing. We were both really happy.

Snow on the Sidewalk

This was in Eastern Market, I was leaving the motel where I was placed to take my daughter to daycare, it had snowed really badly and the sidewalk wasn’t clear for weeks. This made taking my daughter to her daycare really difficult and dangerous. One day I fell and dislocated my ACL and hurt my tailbone- I couldn’t go to work for a month and it was extremely painful to walk. I still have problems with that same leg to this day.

Disabilities and Homelessness

In DC many homeless people have mental and physical disabilities- how can we help? As I stood at the bus stop beside this woman I put myself in her shoes- if I was in her situation, not in a stable mind frame, what could I do to get help. I was in this situation of homelessness and I saw her and she was in an even worse situation than I was, and I felt a lot of emotions- fear, that I also would end up in a worse situation, I felt a desire to help her, and I felt helpless, helpless to aid her situation and helplessness in my own situation. I also thought about all of the people in the district who have to deal with trauma and homelessness and how hard that is.

 

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