For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kayne Karnbach and I am a professional fundraiser and volunteer here at Street Sense. For more than two months now, I have been volunteering at Street Sense full-time in order to help raise some much-needed funds. The reason I have been able to spend so much time volunteering with Street Sense is because I have recently been laid off from my full-time job as a fundraiser.
While times have been tough after getting laid off, I have been able to survive because of the strong support system I am fortunate enough to have. My support system here in D.C. includes a small amount in savings that I have been able to build up while employed, and a wonderful girlfriend who has helped me make rent and other expenses when my savings ran out. Furthermore, I always know that I have a loving mom to fall back on in Florida. In short, I have a lot of options; many are not that fortunate.
Many of the less fortunate include our hundred Street Sense vendors, who know homelessness firsthand, and the thousands of other homeless men, women and children, who live in the District and its suburbs. A great number of them don’t have a support system. And because of that, tough times become the rule rather than the exception.
In light of this, I often wonder where I would be if faced with those circumstances: No savings to rely on, no loving (employed) girlfriend to help pay my bills when I fall short, and no eager family in Florida to come to the rescue if all else fails.
Many of our homeless neighbors are totally and completely on their own. A concept that I believe most of us can’t fully grasp. Even those of us who consider ourselves self-sufficient have probably had help at some crucial point in our lives.
While it is true that those of us who have been laid off often worry about where we will get the money to pay rent or credit card bills, for the most part we can rest assured knowing that we will not have to endure what our homeless neighbors endure every day.
