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Provider Perspectives
Illness and Medical Debt Contribute to Homelessness
Mark works at Catholic Charities, an agency that provides social services to the most vulnerable members of the community. Mark is the Wellness Coordinator for the agency’s emergency shelter facility, Daybreak Shelter. Mark’s job is to serve as a resource for those who stay at Daybreak. He brings health services to the shelter and connects people with health services outside the shelter as well.
Through his work, Mark has gotten to know several people that became homeless, or were on the brink of homelessness, because of the cost of medical care. All were working hard and living the American Dream until illness struck. And that is what is so compelling about Mark’s stories — they could happen to anyone.
One woman showed up at their door as the result of a heart attack. This woman had been working for the same company for a number of years and had always had insurance through her job. When she could not return to work after her heart attack, she lost her job, and along with it, her insurance. She spent her life savings on health care and eventually ran out of money. She was no longer able to afford the medication she needed to live. Thankfully, Mark’s organization was able to find a private donation to cover her prescriptions. However, as Mark points out, she’s just one person. What about all of the other people in this situation who are not lucky enough to find help in time?
Mark next told of a man who, before coming to the shelter, had earned $70,000 a year as a small business owner. When this man was diagnosed with cancer, he sought treatment at the Mayo clinic in Minnesota. Unable to return to work, he eventually lost everything — his investments, his business, his home. He was actually stranded in Minnesota for a time. When he got back to Joliet, he went straight to the emergency shelter. Although his stay at the shelter was brief, Mark remembers him as a real fighter. He once told Mark, “The day I give up on myself is the day it’s over for me.” Mark says that hearing this statement of courage from someone homeless and penniless both saddened and inspired him.
Finally, Mark related a story about a family that his organization was able to help before they ended up in an emergency shelter. The main breadwinner in this family was working full-time until an eye condition rendered him unable to work — or to do much else. He could not afford to go to the doctor and so the man could not return to work. Fortunately, he received help from Catholic Charities’ vision program. A doctor at the facility was able to diagnose the father’s rare condition, and find volunteers in the community to treat it. The man called Mark months later to thank him. He said he had several interviews lined up, and was extremely grateful just to be able to drive his kids to school. Mark says that this sort of story that makes his job worth it, and is extremely grateful to the volunteers that make this possible. However, he adds that volunteers can only do so much. Even with the combined efforts of private volunteers and the current public safety net, people are continually falling through the cracks.
According to Mark, systemic change is necessary in order to ensure that everyone in need of medical care has access to it. He believes that health care is a human right, and should not be available only to those who can afford it. Mark says that he feels sickened when he sees people go without needed care here in the United States, knowing the resources we have available as a country. Mark has been frustrated at the lack of a national solution to the health care crisis, but finds hope in the reform efforts taking place on the state level in Illinois. “A universal plan is needed,” asserts Mark, “Illinois Covered does that.”
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