Editor, The Channels:

I’m an EOPS student and single parent. I was homeless for 10 months with knowledge of the EOPS Department. Let’s set the record straight; EOPS doesn’t not offer any assistance.

You do not need a referral to end up on the doorstep of a shelter, or to be taken in. I, like the women in you article “Hurting for Housing,” in the Feb. 1 issue, chose not to use the shelter. Thereby not subjecting my 13 year old to a situation more emotionally stressful than the one he was already having to deal with.

The Transition House family shelter is a quasi-lock-up house. Doors are locked at 5 p.m. How is a person with a life, i.e. evening classes not to mention the activities a 13-year-old son has, supposed to use their facility?

Would you care to look at the humiliation that is suffered by an adult, in my case a 55-year-old woman with two European degrees, who has to check in to a facility at 5 p.m.? To be poor in this country is considered a crime.

Yes, I survived sleeping in a motel and car with child and dog, maintained over 3.0 grade point average and home schooled my son. So what?

No one, let alone a child, should have to experience what we went through. In case you are wondering, we are both American citizens. That is supposed to count for something. Think again, poor is poor.

The only reason I decided to pass this little bit of information on is that I saw an article that City College plans on building student housing. Yes! But will there be any place for returning, older students, with children, who have no money cushion from rich Mom and Dad to fall back on?

– Cyndi Burns

City College student