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Just before this photo, I met Shaun, 35, from South Jersey. During the housing bubble, he did landscaping work, and even had a flooring business, with two trucks and two employees. He bought a three-bedroom house for $230,000. After the collapse, business dried up and he lost his house to foreclosure. He, his wife and a son then moved into his mother-in-law’s home, and from there, Shaun found a job at Walmart, making $9.05 an hour. They only gave him 12 to 25 hours a week, however, and he was terminated after 3 ½ months anyway, for it was only seasonal work.

At home, tension flared, so Shaun finally moved out after arguments with his wife and mother-in-law. Before ending up on the streets, where he’s been for two months, Shaun stayed with a friend in South Philly, then inside the Spruce Parker Hotel. One night in a shelter resulted in his locker being broken into, and his backpack stolen. Gone was everything he owned, including his IDs, birth certificate and social security card.

Shaun has applied at numerous restaurants, a Wawa convenience store and even the Franklin Institute, a science museum. He goes to the library regularly to search for jobs on the computer.

Shaun’s estranged wife is nine years younger than him, and he met her when she was only 18. She went after him, Shaun said. His son, now six-years-old, was born a year before they got married. For whatever reasons, her family never liked him. Her father is a researcher who works with monkeys and makes $600,000 a year.



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