Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon’s faltering economy is affecting families all across the state, regardless of geography, and income. But perhaps no one is hit harder than people who are already on the low end of the income scale.

They can be the most vulnerable in a recession. In the latest of OPB’s ongoing series on the economy, “Hard Times,” Rob Manning profiles a young family that's been split apart and rendered homeless by the recession.

Ben Perrins, Cindi Shipley and their kids mark an unpleasant anniversary this month. It’s been a year since they lost their apartment. That's when they started bouncing in and out of Portland homeless shelters, and crashing in friends' homes.  

Cindi Shipley and Ben Perrins in Pioneer Courthouse Square with three year-old Christopher

Cindi Shipley: “Right now, we are couch-hopping. We were in shelter until May 1st. The shelter closed – it was a winter shelter.”

They’re trying to get off the couch as much as they can. That often means riding light rail, to places like Pioneer Courthouse Square, where I caught up with them.

Neither parent is working right now. The family gets 12-hundred fifty dollars in government assistance and food stamps. Ben and Cindi are looking for jobs, but they're not finding anything.

Cindi Shipley: “It’s very hard. I have a lot of experience in customer service, customer relations, retail, but the job market is really hard right now.”

This isn’t the first time Ben and Cindi have been on the street – but for more than a year, things were good. 

Ben had a job for a tow-truck company, and he ran a car detailing business on the side.

Ben Perrins: “You know, I’d go out, do the tow truck business during the day, and then on the weekends, the days I had off were the days I ran my own business. It was lucrative, you know.”

But, it didn’t last. Ben says he got into a little trouble at work, so it didn’t surprise him that when the economy sputtered a year and a half ago, he lost his job.

Ben Perrins: “They were looking for a chop, and My head was on the block. They did it. I don’t feel bad for them. I’d love to go back to work for them.”

Ben says he tried to make up for the lost income by doing more detailing – but then that dried up, too. Cindi says that at about the same time, their rent went up.

Cindi Shipley: “So, with a rent increase of 50 dollars and no job, we couldn’t keep the apartment. And trying to find a job, with the economy the way it is now, it’s not working out.”

Ben says bad choices compounded their problems.

Ben Perrins: “That, and I was kind of, dabbling in something I shouldn’t have been, and I got out of that real quick. You know, I’ve got kids…”

What Perrins is trying not to talk about is his drug habit. He started using methamphetamine more than ten years ago, but he says he’s been clean for eight months.

Ben’s 38 years have been tough. He came up through Oregon’s foster care system, and he spent time at the MacLaren Youth Correctional facility. In spite of an easy laugh, Ben’s got a temper that’s gotten him in trouble, and into counseling.

He lived out of a backpack and a bedroll, before, when he was a lot younger. He says it’s humbling to do it again, and it tempts him to use again.

Ben Perrins: “Being out here, not having a place, not having a job, you get beat down, you get wore down, to the point where – ‘oh, screw it, I’m just going to do me a bowl.’ And that’s not the answer, the answer is to continue forward.” 

For 31 year-old, Cindi Shipley, the hardest part of homelessness is what it’s doing to her family.

Her son, three year-old Christopher bounces around Pioneer Square with his matchbox cars and handheld video game.

But Cindi grits her teeth when she considers that he has spent almost half his life in shelters or at friends’ houses. The two older kids spend most of their time with their grandma, in North Portland – because it’s a stable home, and close to school.

Cindi Shipley:  “I feel like I’m the grandma, you know, the grandma figure, sort of, because I only see them on the weekends, and their grandma sees them all through the week. She’s the parent to them, and that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. She’s supposed to be able to say ‘give them some sugar, and send them home’.”

Cindi says she wishes she could do more. She’s obviously proud of her nine year-old daughter, who got a scholarship to pay for almost all the cost of a summer camp. But they’re still at least 75 dollars short of the amount they need. So, Cindi’s young daughter is also looking for work, to raise that money.

Cindi Shipley: “So she took it on herself, she’s nine, took it upon herself to go to neighbors – that she knows, of course – to ask them, can I do any yard work for you, or whatever? And so, in three days, she’s raised seven dollars, so far.”

Cindi says she’ll chip in what she can, but it’s not much.

Ben and Cindi say that digging out of their problems won’t be easy. Cindi says it’s hard to know where to start.

Cindi Shipley: “We gotta have housing to be able to go to a job every day, but we’ve got to have a job, to get housing. It’s like a big circle.” 

At least Cindi Shipley and Ben Perrins have a little stability. A friend outside Beaverton is letting them stay. They may even get on the lease there to shore up their rental history. But it’s not perfect. The parents are still an hour away on public transit from two of their children, who are in North Portland.