Daily Bread
A municipal shelter that feeds the homeless in its dining room should have experience in showing compassion and understanding. There are many reasons for being homeless; not all homeless are at fault for their fall down the social ladder. The workers at a shelter should have no problem understanding the misfortunes of others.
But there are workers that don't care. A woman who worked in the municipal shelter of Santa Cruz de Tenerife part time for 400 euros a month, took home two small loaves of bread and about a hundred sixty grams of cheese. The co-worker who saw her denounced her to the supervisor and the woman was fired. The woman had been working there for five years and had always been a dependable employee, but that small theft was inexcusable. It didn't matter that it happened at ten at night when she went home and that the bread was going to be thrown out anyway. She stole, she was fired.
But her circumstances weren't much different from those the shelter fed. The woman was a single mother of two small girls, and homeless herself after the shack where she had been living ever since she had left her abusive husband was torn down. She petitioned for subsidized housing seven years ago and was still waiting for an apartment. Since the shack disappeared, she and her daughters had been living as okupas in a property that was not theirs and where they had no right to be. She felt ashamed to ask for charity and did what she could with what she had, but that night her daughters were going to go to bed hungry, and she wanted to avoid that. And because of that, she lost her job and the little money that was coming in and keeping her and her daughters from being clients at the very shelter where she worked.
Since her story has become know, the mayor of the city, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, has looked to have her readmitted to her job and to have her receive any public help she may be eligible for. But did this really have to happen? Do the cracks have to be this wide? There are too many jobs in this post-crisis society that only guarantee continued poverty. The economic recovery isn't reaching the lowest levels, which remain as forgotten and marginalized as ever.
But there are workers that don't care. A woman who worked in the municipal shelter of Santa Cruz de Tenerife part time for 400 euros a month, took home two small loaves of bread and about a hundred sixty grams of cheese. The co-worker who saw her denounced her to the supervisor and the woman was fired. The woman had been working there for five years and had always been a dependable employee, but that small theft was inexcusable. It didn't matter that it happened at ten at night when she went home and that the bread was going to be thrown out anyway. She stole, she was fired.
But her circumstances weren't much different from those the shelter fed. The woman was a single mother of two small girls, and homeless herself after the shack where she had been living ever since she had left her abusive husband was torn down. She petitioned for subsidized housing seven years ago and was still waiting for an apartment. Since the shack disappeared, she and her daughters had been living as okupas in a property that was not theirs and where they had no right to be. She felt ashamed to ask for charity and did what she could with what she had, but that night her daughters were going to go to bed hungry, and she wanted to avoid that. And because of that, she lost her job and the little money that was coming in and keeping her and her daughters from being clients at the very shelter where she worked.
Since her story has become know, the mayor of the city, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, has looked to have her readmitted to her job and to have her receive any public help she may be eligible for. But did this really have to happen? Do the cracks have to be this wide? There are too many jobs in this post-crisis society that only guarantee continued poverty. The economic recovery isn't reaching the lowest levels, which remain as forgotten and marginalized as ever.
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