Can't pay the bills? Falling further and further behind?
Getting help means waiting in lines, filling out forms,
telling strangers things you thought were nobody else's business.

Does it surprise you to learn that $18,103 Pennsylvania children ages 6 and under are homeless? That 19,167 children enrolled in grade K-8 and 5,833 youths enrolled in grades 9-12 are homeless? That this count doesn't include the state's approximately 10,618 homeless unaccompanied youth nor children grades K-12 not enrolled in a school?

Are you aware that in 2008 the poverty rate in the city of Pittsburgh was 21.2%? Higher than the 13.2% poverty rate of the United States as a whole. Higher than Pennsylvania's poverty rate of 12.1.

If a Pennsylvania mother with two children is receiving public assistance, her monthly income is less than $601. She can afford to pay $180 per month in rent, $575 short of the amount needed to rent a two-bedroom apartment at the state's Fair Market Rent level. Even a minor event in her family's life can result in their homelessness.

Can you even begin to imagine and understand the fears, the anguish, the multiplying frustrations that adults and children in low-income families experience as they cope with the day-to-day, month-by-month struggle to meet the most basic costs of housing, food, child care, health care, utilities, and transportation. Are you willing to try?

HCEF and its partner organizations – Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Allegheny County Library Association, the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Public Schools – joined with Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners (PSVP) to present a Poverty Simulation Experience during National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week in mid-November.

The photographs on the page that follows tell the story as participants seek help from community and governmental resources, negotiate with neighborhood businesses, and face the unexpected crises that complicate an already difficult situation.

Statistics updated (10/12/09)