Public Employee Press

Working and homeless

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

"No one would have guessed." — Dietary Aide Denorval Parks

Six years after leaving the public shelter system, Dietary Aide Denorval Parks found himself homeless again.

"In 2012, when I broke up with my girlfriend, I lost the apartment we shared," said the father of three. "I fell behind on my bills and the rent. I had to give up the home I made for my family."

Parks and his three sons then entered the city shelter system for the second time since 1999, he said.

Parks was not alone. Driven by rising rents, stagnant wages, gentrification, dwindling supplies of affordable housing and record unemployment, the number of families living in New York City shelters hit a record high under the Bloomberg administration.

A report by the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness found the number of New York City public schoolchildren living in city shelters or with friends or relatives in 2013 had climbed 63 percent in the previous five years to nearly 80,000. Nationally, over 1.25 million children live without stable shelter, according to the U.S. Dept. of Education.

"I did not want to stay in the shelter system," Parks said. After three agonizing months, "I sent my sons to live with their mother. I had to make a deal with her. Sometimes you do things you don't like."

"It was months of fast food meals and never knowing where I'd be sleeping."
— Denorval Parks

Parks stayed with family sporadically, "but mostly I lived out of my van," he said. Still, the Local 420 member maintained his job at Elmhurst Hospital.

"No one would have ever guessed my situation," he said. "I'd just hang around the job after work. I had nowhere to go. I spent a lot of time at Jamaica Public Library." Parks used his library time to write a book, "Sheltered Again," his second self-published account of his homeless experiences.

"It was months of fast food meals eaten while writing and never knowing where I'd be sleeping," he said. He bounced between his 87-year-old grandmother's home and his brother's house in Jamaica, Queens. But the brother has a large family and Parks "didn't want to wear out my welcome. The hardest part was living out of my van in November."

After six months Parks received a long-awaited government letter saying he was accepted for Section 8 housing aid. He eventually found a small one-bedroom in Queens.

"I took whatever I could to get my sons back," he said.

The union's Municipal Employees Legal Services can help, said MELS Director and Chief Counsel Joan Beranbaum. "Before a member becomes homeless, they should call us at 212-815-1111 for help, especially if they receive any legal papers from their landlord."