Visit to housing project brings back vivid memories
Timothy Williams
Issue date: 4/14/09 Section: Special Report
The idea of being able to live solely on minimum wage is an extreme fixation of the imagination, according to Shari Philpot, a graduate of Augusta State University.
"I have seen the best of both worlds… knowing what it's like to have a lot and knowing what it's like to have absolutely nothing," Philpot said.
Philpot was born and reared in New York by a mother who worked as a police officer and a father who flew planes for a living. Living in a nice neighborhood with a pool in the backyard, Philpot's early childhood was very comfortable compared to most children. As good as it was, it would be short-lived.
Philpot said that her mother began using drugs, which eventually led to the loss of a job at the police department and a divorce. She, along with her mother and siblings, ended up moving to a project area in Brooklyn, where Philpot was exposed to a life below minimum wage.
As Philpot grew older, life grew worse. In her early teenage years, she had already been involved in gang activity, had lived on the streets and had dealt drugs just to take care of she and her younger brothers. Philpot recalled that her mother would leave home randomly for three to five months.
"She would go on these (drug) binges and nobody would hear from her for months…," Philpot said. "For her to be gone four to five moths out of the year and then come home for a week or two and do the same thing was nothing."
The family would often live without water, power or food until she and her brothers got evicted , she commented.
Philpot said she had to grow up quickly without having a mother to nurture or train her. Eventually, her mother returned, and the family moved to North Augusta, S.C. This constant pattern of being evicted from housing facilities and moving between New York and South Carolina occurred multiple times.
"I don't remember staying in a single school for more than a year from middle school to high school," Philpot said.
At 16 years old, Philpot began her senior year at North Augusta High School. Because her mother still left on drug binges for months at a time, Philpot eventually gained custody of her younger brothers from the Department of Family and Child Services (DFACS) and began working multiple minimum wage jobs.
"I have seen the best of both worlds… knowing what it's like to have a lot and knowing what it's like to have absolutely nothing," Philpot said.
Philpot was born and reared in New York by a mother who worked as a police officer and a father who flew planes for a living. Living in a nice neighborhood with a pool in the backyard, Philpot's early childhood was very comfortable compared to most children. As good as it was, it would be short-lived.
Philpot said that her mother began using drugs, which eventually led to the loss of a job at the police department and a divorce. She, along with her mother and siblings, ended up moving to a project area in Brooklyn, where Philpot was exposed to a life below minimum wage.
As Philpot grew older, life grew worse. In her early teenage years, she had already been involved in gang activity, had lived on the streets and had dealt drugs just to take care of she and her younger brothers. Philpot recalled that her mother would leave home randomly for three to five months.
"She would go on these (drug) binges and nobody would hear from her for months…," Philpot said. "For her to be gone four to five moths out of the year and then come home for a week or two and do the same thing was nothing."
The family would often live without water, power or food until she and her brothers got evicted , she commented.
Philpot said she had to grow up quickly without having a mother to nurture or train her. Eventually, her mother returned, and the family moved to North Augusta, S.C. This constant pattern of being evicted from housing facilities and moving between New York and South Carolina occurred multiple times.
"I don't remember staying in a single school for more than a year from middle school to high school," Philpot said.
At 16 years old, Philpot began her senior year at North Augusta High School. Because her mother still left on drug binges for months at a time, Philpot eventually gained custody of her younger brothers from the Department of Family and Child Services (DFACS) and began working multiple minimum wage jobs.
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