03/08/2009
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Staff photo by David Leaming
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Staff photo by David Leamingfrom the Kennebec Journal
FAIRPOINT PLAN TARGETS DEBT
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AUGUSTA: Cuts to French curriculum run into opposition
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HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY NOTEBOOK: Different stakes in Gardiner-Winslow rivalry
All of today's:
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from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
'At the time ... he was psychotic'
Man answers door, is attacked with Mace and then robbed
FairPoint reorganization plan aims to slash company's debt
Concerns over special-education changes aired
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Stun gun, arrest of suspect end high-speed, 2-town chase
HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY NOTEBOOK: Gardiner, Winslow take to ice again
GIRLS BASKETBALL: Skowhegan wins KVAC A title game
All of today's:
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from the Morning Sentinel
Tammy Harris and Justin Nickerson know they have to wake their son, 4-month-old William, in time for the 7 o'clock breakfast at Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter.
That gives them about 50 minutes to eat before they leave.
"At 7:50 you have to leave," 23-year-old Harris said, "and you have to be back by 6 o'clock."
In those hours in between, guests at the emergency shelter on Ticonic Street are on their own. For many of the single adults, the Social Club two doors down the road becomes a second home, a place to stay warm in a harsh Maine winter.
That's not an option for families.
Some go to the Salvation Army, which has space for families Monday through Friday at its Main Street building. Waterville Public Library is another option, another haven from the cold.
Harris said her family is one of the lucky ones. They stay with a friend in Winslow, a caring woman they befriended back in better days -- back when they had the income to afford an apartment in the same building.
But for now money is in short supply.
Harris is grateful that the shelter exists, and she appreciates the kindness of the Mid-Maine staff and the many volunteers who come through the shelter's door on a regular basis.
Still, she looks forward to moving into the Section 8 -- a federally subsidized housing program -- apartment recently located for her family.
After more than three months at the shelter, she craves a place she can call her own. "We don't want to be there," she said of the shelter. "We are there because of our situation. The bottom fell out of it, and we needed help, and they were there to help us."
The background
Harris and Nickerson, also 23, married in December 2005.
Their life together has been a struggle in the financial sense. Both have had to make a living on a variety of menial jobs in either the retail or restaurant industry.
Harris is a Winslow High School graduate, although she was pregnant with her first child, now 4 years old, from a previous relationship when she earned her diploma.
She has custody of her first child but has found a another place for the child to live temporarily. Harris does not want her older child to have memories of living in an emergency shelter.
Nickerson dropped out of Skowhegan Area High School after his junior year to attend a program called Job Corps, which is an education and job training program for at-risk youth, at the former Loring Air Force base in Limestone.
Nickerson joined the Army soon after Job Corps, but that career path lasted only nine months.
"I had a problem with my feet," he said, "and couldn't do the run."
Like Harris, Nickerson has a child from a previous relationship -- Nickerson does not have custody.
At one point, Harris and Nickerson worked at the Marden's Surplus & Salvage store in Waterville. That ended in January 2007, when they say they both were laid off.
Both were hard-pressed to find other jobs.
But then their job market is limited. They don't own a car and thus are forced to find employment in the immediate area. Their education level is another limiting factor.
"It is frustrating," Nickerson said, "because there are only so many places and then you can cross a quarter to a half of them off your list because you don't have the skills."
Nickerson finally found a full-time job in July 2007, a position at the Waterville Wal-Mart.
That job lasted until September of last year when Nickerson was fired over a dispute concerning Wal-Mart policy.
He searched for a job for more than three months without success.
Harris had food stamps and income from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. But it was not enough to meet their living expenses.
And so they became guests at Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in November.
The budget
Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter is a networking center as well as a shelter.
Shelter staff work with closely with other agencies to help those who become guests in the two-story building.
Executive Director Mike Marston said the idea is to help homeless families and individuals get into a long-term housing situation.
Many of the guests, he said, are employed and save their money so they can afford to move into a house or apartment -- usually a subsidized one.
Nickerson is one example.
After long frustration he found a job at the Goodwill Industries thrift store in Waterville.
He works 20 to 30 hours a week, earning $7.75 an hour.
Nickerson said he clears about $600 a month, but he said $200 of that goes to child-support payments -- he pays $100 every two weeks.
"I have to have food stamps," Harris said, "or we could not eat."
There is TANF money, too, but even with that, daily expenses are a struggle.
They rely on taxi service to get back and forth to the shelter, as well to go to Wal-Mart for groceries. Each trip costs at least $10.
"My credit is shot because I just owe so many bills," Harris said. "I have so many things in collection, I am constantly getting phone calls."
Harris would like to change her name legally to Nickerson. She wants to share her husband's surname. But she can't.
Just as she is forced to stay at the shelter, Harris has no option but to live with her current name.
"We don't have the money to change my license," she said. "I don't have the money to change my Social Security card, so nothing has changed."
The future
She will be happy, she said, to have a home again.
Harris said she looks forward to having both her children under the same roof again, a place where she and her husband can set the rules.
They will not miss the curfews -- 10 p.m. for adults Sunday through Thursday, 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday -- and the early morning wake-up at the shelter.
But she has greater dreams: She longs to one day have a nice home in the country.
Marston, who began his work at the shelter in 1992 as a volunteer, hopes Harris realizes that dream. Yet he knows that his guests face a much tougher existence these days.
Most of the mills are gone, he said, and so, too, is the chicken industry, once a source of decent wages for many in central Maine.
"The jobs are harder and harder to find," he said, "It is just harder to make a living than it was 20 to 30 years ago."
Marston said the shelter tries to help its guests with employment. Recently, he said, he had some guests participate in a program called WorkReady that teaches basic skills.
"A program like WorkReady can enable a guest to get a better job," he said, "and do a better job at whatever job they get, which may enable them to move up the ladder."
Nickerson is willing to work. He wants to get into a better position financially, so that one day he can afford that home in the country.
But he's not sure how to accomplish that. He's not sure what direction to take, what career to pursue.
"I don't know yet," he said. "I've been trying to figure that out. I'm lucky if I can plan a week ahead."
Epilogue
Friday the 13th was a lucky day for Tammy Harris and Justin Nickerson. That's the day the couple ceased to be homeless.
They moved into a subsidized two-bedroom apartment with their son William, ending a more than three-month stay at Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville.
"It is nice," Harris said of having a home again. "It makes you feel human again."
Harris and her family had to leave the shelter between breakfast and dinner each day.
Now she can stay put with William in the third-floor apartment. It is a wonderful feeling, she said.
"He's 5 months now," she said. "And he's not sick anymore, because we don't have to go out every day."
Colin Hickey -- 861-9205
chickey@centralmaine.com
