There are 2 things that Joseph Cantu claims is what holds his strength-his faith in God and the hope that his children won’t remember IT. The IT refers to the housing problems he and his 5 children are dealing with.
Cantu said he never thought this could happen to him; however, the thing that bothers him the most is that his children have to suffer as well.
Luckily, for now, they’re small enough that they probably won’t remember it. Unfortunately, Cantu and his 5 children are still homeless.
Until Now, All of the Solutions Were Short-Term
After his wife left him and their children, they had to move out of their home last month. They slept in various places-but this was all a temporary solution.
Some nights, they stayed inside a van and then other nights they would sleep in motels from money they got from donations.
Unfortunately, their struggles don’t stop here. Until recently, he was working; however, he lost his job because he had no one to watch over the children, two of whom are back to school.
He’s now getting daily questions from his children wondering when they will be able to go home. But, this has become a challenge for him.
Although a natural solution in this case is a shelter, this is also another challenge they’re dealing with.
Michigan Doesn’t Have a lot of Shelters for Men with Children
Unfortunately, they’re still waiting to be placed in a shelter; however, here in the southeast of Michigan, there are not a lot of shelters available for men with children.
Despite the fact that it’s rarer for the father to be a single parent, Cantu is a part of a new homelessness face, one consisting of seniors and families with a lot of expenses and not enough capacity to pay them off.
He has found a way to get child care and recently learned that he qualifies for the Michigan Department of Human Services. However, until he finds a stable employment, rain will continue to pour for this family.
Cantu is a professional auto polisher- he’s skilled in giving cars the last touch by fixing all of the imperfections from the paint booth.
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