I never met MetMin guest # 3 today. I dont really want to tell you her story. I wish I could get her and her sister out of my mind, but I cant. This morning I got an SOS call from my buddy at Front Porch Alliance. Buddies drop everything when buddies call for help. You know that. My Front Porch Alliance buddy was trying to keep 2 sisters from becoming homeless. It was 10:20. At 11 a.m. the 2 sisters would have to leave the Shallowford Road hotel to which they had fled. Theyve always lived together, with the older, married sister making sure her younger, slow sister was OK. For almost 2 decades the family lived together in Minnesota in the older sisters violent, abusive household. The older sister had carefully planned their escape. For whatever reason, they fled to Chattanooga. The older sister quickly got a minimum wage job, but the younger sister didnt. Just like home in Minnesota. They had enough money to stay for a couple of weeks in a hotel. Once the older sister got that job, they thought they had enough money to stay there. Within 2 weeks, that job became unstable - probably was all along - and last week the older sisters hours were cut. They couldnt pay the hotel. A co-worker told them to call Front Porch. But Front Porch doesnt pay for hotel stays. Its not that they dont want to. Its just that, like all agencies here in the trenches, the need is astounding and overwhelming and the funding is not. MetMin doesnt really do hotel stays, either. We actually do lots of things that we dont do. By then the clock was ticking. It was 10:45 and I had just 15 minutes to stop this speeding bullet. I tried to contact the older sister, but couldnt reach her. I called the hotel and told them that wed pay for a week. The hotel wouldnt accept MetMins payment. Rules are rules, you know. Yeh. I know. Rules are rules. The message is clear. We lost the sisters. The strangers in our midst - no network, no family. No welcome wagon here. Our guests, even those we never meet, are not the only ones who keep trying against all odds. Thank you for listening.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 22:48:07 +0000