Young children among faces in crowd of homeless
Part I of a two-part series
By Carissa Marsh Special to the Acorn

RELOCATED- Above, Anne King sits with her daughter, 2yearold Kaidyn Crespin-King, at Simi Community Church in an extra room provided by the PADS program. Normally King, Kaidyn and Kyle Crespin, Kaidyn's father, sleep in a room with 10 or 20 other people, but because Kaidyn had been running a fever, PADS provided them with a separate room for the night. At right, Kaidyn eats dinner with her dad and others who have come to the PADS program for shelter. The family has been homeless for a month.

With scores of last-minute holiday shoppers shuffling past, Anne King and her 2-year-old daughter Kaidyn strolled leisurely through the Simi Valley Town Center last week, taking in its sights and sounds.

As they waited patiently in line to see Santa Claus, crisp winter air nipped at their faces.

Few would have guessed that the doting mother and the energetic little girl awaiting a visit with Santa are homeless. But they are.

King, 41, her boyfriend, Kyle Crespin, 27, and Kaidyn, their daughter, are three faces in a disturbing trend in Ventura County and elsewhere, the growing number of homeless families with young children.

Photos by WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers

A count by the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition in January tallied 141 homeless families living in the county, 108 of which were singleparent.

Thirteen of the homeless families indicated that they lived in Simi, but Richard Shaw, a member of the board of directors of the Simi Valley Samaritan Center, is sure that number has increased in the 12 months since the survey was taken.

Shaw has witnessed this new trend during his work with the city's Public Action to Deliver Shelter program.

"We have noticed that we are seeing more families and single mothers at the PADS sites," said Shaw, who called the trend a "startling new phenomena."

More families coming

in the door

The PADS program works with the Samaritan Center to provide overnight shelter to the homeless during the coldest months of the year, from Nov. 1 to March 31.

Seven of the city's churches volunteer to open their doors one night a week to offer a place for the homeless to sleep, including Simi Community Church, where Shaw is a member.

Though PADS was established more than 12 years ago, it's only recently that more families and single mothers are going to the PADS sites, Shaw said.

The issue of family homelessness is particularly personal to Shaw, who almost lost his own home after his wife was diagnosed with cancer. At the same time, his salary was cut by a third. Shaw said he knows first-hand that homelessness can truly happen to anyone.

"I think people need to be more aware because the image people have of the homeless are the extremes," Shaw said, noting that many people tend to think of the negative stereotypes associated with homelessness instead of picturing down-on-their luck families with young children.

Kittie Fidermutz, a social service aide for the Salvation Army and a member of the county's Task Force on Homelessness, also works with PADS. Like Shaw, she has witnessed the increasing number of homeless families in the city.

Fidermutz spends her nights at the individual sites, greeting and checking in homeless people who walk through the church doors.

According to Fidermutz, PADS usually serves anywhere from 17 to 20 homeless people a night. But in the past two weeks, the overnight number has jumped to as many as 46.

"We're getting a lot of new people and a lot more families," Fidermutz said.

On a recent Tuesday night she had five families show up, with children ranging in ages from 6 weeks to 14 years old, she said.

According to Shaw, the average age of a victim to homelessness in the United States is 9 years old.

"Homelessness takes on many shapes, ages, genders and facets," he said. "I am quite sure that the majority of the residents of Simi Valley are totally unaware of exactly who makes up this rather large population."

Reasons why

Many factors contribute to homelessness, including increases in rent, loss of a job and rising health care costs. Domestic violence, physical disabilities, mental illness and substance abuse can also cause lowincome individuals or whole households to become homeless.

"There are various reasons why people end up in homelessness," Shaw said. "I don't think there is a single person in our city or our county that couldn't end up the same way. Since many of us live from paycheck to paycheck, it doesn't take long before you can't make your next rent payment or house payment."

King and Crespin had an apartment in Palm Desert, but after the birth of Kaidyn the couple was unable to pay the rent. They were evicted in November.

"Getting pregnant at 39 did me in," said King, who said she became very ill after giving birth. "Now I have this little baby and it was hard for me to go back to work."

King had been styling hair for 16 years and managed a MasterCuts Salon for eight. She said she worked until the last two weeks of her pregnancy.

"I love my work. I love working," King said. "I love the money I made and I love the way it made me feel to be doing something productive."

After being evicted, King came to Simi with her daughter and boyfriend to stay with her half sister.

However, King, who was adopted, had never met her half sister. Not wanting to be a burden to the sibling she had just met, King decided to take her family to PADS.

During the day, the three keep themselves busy by going to the park or the mall, and Crespin continues to look for a job nearby. But walking around all day until PADS opens at 7:45 p.m. is "exhausting," King said.

She said being homeless is a struggle, but her focus never wavers from her daughter's wellbeing. King said that she is still trying to figure out how best to care for her daughter and meet her food and medical needs.

"My one and only purpose is to be a good mom," King said, trying to hold back tears. "And to not be able to give her what she needs- that makes you feel really guilty."

Kaidyn's upbeat personality masks the reality of the family's difficult situation.

"She's so happy and friendly and sweet. It seems like she doesn't really know that things are so bad," said King. "But then there's times when I'm crying and she'll just look at me and say 'don't cry' and give me a hug. So I know she knows that there's stuff going on that makes our life not completely normal."

The second part of this series will address the law as it applies to homeless parents.