The Forgotten Americans

A disturbing look at America’s Employed Homeless

Brian Zemeka is single. He is in his early forties. Brian has a Bachelor of Art’s degree in Secondary Education-Mathematics and a Master of Arts degree in Teaching-Mathematics. A little over a year ago the company Brian worked for went through a major reorganization to save themselves from bankruptcy. When the dust had settled, Brian found himself without a job. At the time, he lived in an apartment in Brooklyn. He owned a midsize Toyota (financed), had a healthy, if not large savings account and a few investments.

While on unemployment he sent his resume out everywhere and applied for jobs whether he fit the qualifications or not. Brian wasn’t oblivious to the growing problems with the US economy or job market, but he believed the announcements that the economy was slowly improving. He believed the media when they said the unemployment rate was lowering. A year of job searches and interviews left Brian still unemployed.  Desperate, with his unemployment about to run out, Brian started applying for low wage jobs. Eventually, a company hired him for $8.50 an hour, a few weeks after his unemployment had ended. It was a far cry from the $56,000 a year salary Brian had previously been receiving.

At present, five out of seven days a week, Brian Zemeka wakes up, quickly moves on to shower and dress then runs to a nearby corner to catch the local bus, then subway to work. Sounds like a typical morning for most of us right? Think again. Brian was evicted from his apartment while on unemployment. He had subsidized the payments of his rent, utilities, food and car note with his savings. When that ran out, he then used money from his investments to help pay the bills until that also expired. Now Brian secretly lives out of a storage unit. His showers and grooms himself at a nearby gym he joined solely for that purpose.

You might be thinking that Brian has choices. He doesn’t have to live the way he does. But does he really have a choice? Below is a table of Brian’s expenses. Brian earns $1,360 a month before taxes.

Starting with the $1,360 below are Brian’s deductions.

Expenses For One Month	Amount After Deduction
Taxes and other related items $350	$1,010.00
Transportation $104	$906.00
Car note, repossessed car payment obligation $189	$717.00
Back Rent & Court Costs Related to Eviction and Broken Lease $136.00	$581.00
Food $200 ($5-7/day)	$381.00
Storage $210	$231.00
Gym Membership $10	$221.00
Prepaid Phone Service $40	$181.00

Brian’s Monthly Expenses

As you can see, at the end of the month, Brian is left with $181.00. This does not include any deductions for personal hygiene items or take in to account any days he might have missed from work due to illness (his job offers no medical plan) or time needed to go on interviews. How would you live if you were in Brian’s situation?

You’re probably asking, what is so special about Brian? Why should we care about him? The answer is because 51% of American’s, either have, or at some point in their life, will, live in poverty before they turn 65 years of age. Brian is only one of the many Americans that fall through the cracks in a system that does not take into account the employed but homeless. They earn what the Federal government considers to be above the poverty income level; yet do not earn enough to sustain an adequate way of life which includes a decent place to live. Unusually, they are not illegible for most subsidized programs or even food stamps.

Maybe you know Brian Zemeka. Is the story familiar, but the name is different? Is it someone you’re acquainted with or possibly you?

This blog will introduce you to other Forgotten Americans. In the meantime, ask yourself, could this be me one day?

Related articles:

Seattle mayor would put homeless in fire station (thenewstribune.com)
America’s forgotten homeless students (rt.com)
Child poverty in US approaches 25% (prof77.wordpress.com)
More Americans file for unemployment (rt.com)
The rich get richer as the rest of America is screwed (rt.com)