THE HIDDEN HOMELESS -Interview with Gloucester City Resident-SentinelSource.com
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
In Cordero’s room, belongings cover every surface — the chest of drawers, the small refrigerator, and the floor along the walls (at least up to the waist).
The children make the best of their small world. Robert Jr., 16; Austin, 13; Carmen Anna, 11; Grace, 9; and Destiny, 8, lie or sit on two beds, playing and watching television.
They are discouraged from going outside. All that is there is an asphalt parking lot.
“The boys each have a dresser drawer, and the two youngest girls share a drawer,” Cordero said. “My 11-year-old has her own drawer ... and I put my stuff on top of a storage bin.”
The four youngest take a bus each day to the Boys and Girl Clubs of Camden County on Park Boulevard in Camden while Robert Jr. heads by bus to Gloucester City, where he plays with a traveling baseball team.
Their mother, Samantha Van Horn, 41, who has not lived with the family since last summer, has been visiting lately — especially since Cordero was rehired this month by an Audubon home remodeler to perform carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work.
After being out of work for nine months, Cordero knows how difficult the hunt can be. He hopes to use his new paycheck to move out of the motel to an apartment.
“I like working six or seven days a week,” he said. “When I sit home, I’m crawling up the walls.”
“You have to keep your spirits up and say, ‘Tomorrow will be better,’ ” he said. “If I give up, my kids will think it’s OK to give up.”
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Posted: Sunday, July 31, 2011
By Edward Colimore The Philadelphia Inquirer
