LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Can you imagine being a student living in a tent and having to wake up, go to school, and act as if everything was okay?
FOX4 reporter met with different organizations that are considered change makers.
They connected FOX4 Miyoshi Price with a family that went from living in a tent to living in a home.
"Thank god that we finally found hope," says Linda Martini, who once experienced homelessness as a mother and grandmother.
After being homeless for three years, Linda Martini and her family now have a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home with a front and a back yard through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program.
Watch Fort Myers Community Correspondent Miyoshi Price's report:
She says being homeless with children is another level of hardship.
"They just didn't talk about the homelessness," says Martini referring to her children when they go to school. "They'd be afraid my kids and my grandkids would be made fun of."
They're not alone.
From The School District of Lee County:
The current number of homeless students is 2,192. The McKinney-Vento Act defines homeless children as “individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence." So what that means is If, due to a loss of housing, a child must live in a shelter, motel, vehicle, or campground, on the street, in abandoned buildings, or doubled-up with relatives or friends, then he/she is eligible to receive services provided under the McKinney-Vento Act.
Martini says she had many tents for her family of fifteen. Eight of them being children. Martini says with hurricanes and just regular rainy days, she had to stretch the little money she had to get a motel.
"I tried to look for employment, and my kids found employment," says Martini. "My problem is, is it's hard for me to have employment right now because I have a hernia."
She says it took her daughter's school, the Veterans Coalition, and Saint Hillary's Helping Hands Ministry to get her and her children where they are today.
Ilona Leffingwell from Helping Hands says she met the Martinis when they were homeless.
"We forget the children," says Leffingwell. "You know, when people talk about homelessness, they think of the adults."
Her ministry provides clothes, food, hygiene kits, and more to homeless children.
Leffingwell got teary-eyed, thinking of one boy her group is helping who was homeless.
"This little man was coming to school, is clothes, very tight," says Leffingwell. "Shoes, nothing. And because of his situation, at four, he's still not potting trained. So we've taken him under helping hands, and we are putting clothes on him, helping him to get some kind of love."
She says little man is starting to get comfortable with their help.
The Maritini family credits Leffingwell with giving their daughter a new perspective on life.
"You have to start growing the seed of positivity when they're young, because if you don't do that, excuse the french, but you're screwed," says Leffingwell. "This is our new generation. We have to help them."
The majority of the furniture in the Martini's home, Helping Hands made it happen. The organization is hoping to get more community support through donationns.
They also have a Kentucky Derby Watch party on May 3rd at Saint Hilary's Episcopal Church.
5011 McGregor Blvd.
Fort Myers, Fl
239-936-1000
Call to purchase tickets.
