by Angela Hawkins

The views and opinions expressed in this piece are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the position of Positive Women’s Network – USA.

June 13, 2025

These days, my “job” is calling social service agencies for help with rent and utilities. It’s a daily grind that takes every bit of strength I have — mentally, emotionally, and physically.

I’m 60, in poor health, without steady income or reliable transportation. After working over 30 years as part of the “working poor,” I lost my job in July 2023. Since then, I’ve been navigating a system that’s underfunded, overburdened, and rapidly shrinking — thanks to budget cuts pushed by politicians who seem to forget we exist.

I’ve accessed programs like HOPWA, EFA, and EHE — but even when I qualify, I’m placed on waitlists that stretch for months. I went from singing Christmas carols outside a grocery store for donations to returning my leased car because I couldn’t afford the insurance or payment. I’ve done everything I can think of, and still the help is slipping away.

The sad truth is, programs meant to support people like me are vanishing. I’ve been told I no longer qualify for assistance because my situation “hasn’t changed.” But that’s the point — it can’t change without help.

What’s even harder to swallow is knowing how closely these decisions are made. Just recently, a bill in the U.S. House that included stricter work reporting requirements for people receiving Medicaid and SNAP passed by a single vote — 214 to 215. One vote. The kind of vote that could have come from a district like mine — Texas’s 18th — if we had proper representation in Congress. That absence matters. Without someone in the room speaking for us, fighting for our survival, we fall through the cracks — and so do critical federal dollars that fund the programs we depend on.

I live in Houston’s 18th District, where we’ve lost representation in Congress. Without leadership, federal funding disappears — and so do our safety nets. What I need right now is three months of rent so I can breathe and rebuild. What we all need is for lawmakers to understand: Housing IS healthcare and without either, we can’t survive.