Still Have Not Recovered

It became harder to make a living in Oklahoma City, with a minimum wage at a low $7.25 per hour. The future is bleak for Americans with everything going up but the worker pay rate.

It has been just a little over two years since the Coronavirus impacted the entire world in such a horrible way. Some people have not been able to recover from the pandemic. A lot of people lost their jobs and lost their homes because they couldn’t pay the rent and became homeless. When we think about homelessness, we think about alcoholism and drug addiction or mental illness. Most homeless people don’t fit the stereotypical profile. You could be looking at a homeless person in the face and not even knowing it. With Inflation happening across the country making gas grocery and rent go up. It became harder to make a living in Oklahoma City, with a minimum wage at a low $7.25 per hour. The future is bleak for Americans with everything going up but the worker pay rate.

“The concerns are growing about the need for affordable housing in for Oklahoma City, homeless population. The homeless problem has gowned into a full-blown crisis amid expanding development and higher market demands. In 2022 for the first time the homeless population was counted in two years because of covid. Because market value is going up Oklahoma City, officials are having trouble getting landlords to help” (https://freepressokc.com/complex-affordable-housing-crisis-on-display-across-oklahoma-city).

“When the count was conducted in 2020 there was over 1,500 homeless people in the Oklahoma City area. This number was up by 300 people since 2019, the count did not include people that are couch surfing or living with friends. When the homeless population was last counted it was over 11,000 homeless people in the state of Oklahoma, with the number expected to grow due to the lack of affordable housing” (https://kfor.com/news/local/census-this-week-to-count-homeless-people-in-oklahoma-city/amp/).

Brian Norton is a 53-year-old man that have found himself in a situation that is becoming more common in Oklahoma City, were homelessness is becoming a problem. Sometimes as human beings if we take the time to listening everyone has a story to tell, and this is Brian story to tell.

Brian Norton said he has been homeless for the last 2- or 3-years Brain also said that he had a resale business, and he was doing well until the pandemic hit totally ruined his resale business. He was going to the flea market and setting up in parking lots and selling stuff.” I” was making a pretty good living for the last five years before the pandemic. “I” gradually made more money over the years until the pandemic and then it just stopped.

This is what Brian had to say to people who might find themselves facing hard times. “Just keep on grinding man every day. I’m riding six miles to work three day a week four, sometimes five days a week and six miles back home on a bicycle. “I” have to stick with it everyday because I have money to make. And “I” probably don’t look homeless like a lot of other people the fact is I don’t have my own place I am homeless.