Questioning the American Dream: Kurstin Jones Talks about the Fragility of our Systems
Kurstin Jones, a social worker for The Salvation Army, has a passion for helping people reach their greatest potential. From housing to childcare to the workforce, Kurstin is open and honest about the uphill battles her clients face. She is undoubtedly committed to untangling the systems that have created generations of inequality and continue to function as roadblocks for the many women she works with every day.
Her roots are in Cincinnati, but she loves to travel the world, having learned valuable lessons along the way. She’s been surrounded by strong women all her life who have helped her become a steadfast, dynamic woman. With unwavering strength, she spoke to us in mid-May about the disproportionate affect COVID-19 has had on the Black community, the urgent need for rent control in Cincinnati, the harmful misconceptions about homelessness, and the one word she feels everyone should live by.
Interview by Kristyn Bridges. Photography by Chelsie Walter.
Women of Cincy and the Women's Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation are teaming up to bring you six stories spotlighting the economic mobility of Black women in Cincinnati. “Questioning the American Dream: A Look at the Economic Mobility of Black Women in Cincinnati” supports the Women's Fund's “Historical Analysis of Black Women's Labor Trends and Systemic Barriers to Economic Mobility” study.
These are the stories of Black women navigating life in Cincinnati. We believe telling stories changes things; we believe listening changes things. We promised our community we would tell their stories. It's up to you to listen. Visit womenofcincy.org/economic-mobility for the full series.
The following Q&A is based on the interviewee’s firsthand account of their experiences and opinions alone.
Look for editor's notes with additional information in [bold brackets] throughout the article.
Who is Kurstin Jones? Tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm 30 years old. I’m a social worker; I work at The Salvation Army with homeless families, trying to get them housing and resources.
I like to read and travel. I've been all over Europe and the United States. One of my goals for 2020, weirdly, was to travel more out west. I want to explore Oregon and Washington state, see what's going on in Idaho, see what Nebraska looks like. And then COVID happened, so of course that's on the back burner. So, 2021, here we come [laughing].
What are you passionate about?
I'm passionate about a lot of things; I think that's why I'm in the work I'm in. I've always been passionate about helping people, making sure they succeed, and dismantling these systems that put people at disadvantages simply because of where they were born, their skin color, or their identity. I've always strongly believed it was unfair that certain people knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that they were going to be successful in life because they had these systems and this generational head start compared to other people.
Tell us about your work with The Salvation Army. How did you get involved in social work?
Social work was something I kind of fell into. I was going to be an attorney or a professor. I started off at University of Louisville in law school. I absolutely hated it, everything about it. Kentucky's legal system is very much like a good ole boys’ network, and it was just awful. I had a friend at the time who was in the U of L social work school; he was like, "You like to help people, so why not try social work?" I took a class, really liked it, and I just kept going.
At The Salvation Army, I help homeless families find housing and resources. A bulk of my caseload are homeless families where a mom between the ages of 18 and 24 is the head of household. [In Cincinnati 36% of those experiencing homelessness are under the age of 25. This does not include families who are “couchsurfing.”] It's kind of a new demonstration project – a HUD-funded grant – helping them find housing and learn how to be an adult with children and just deal with all the issues that come with being between the ages of 18 and 24. Sometimes I feel like I'm part mom, part therapist, part coach.
You mentioned this is a new program through HUD. Can you explain that a little more?
The program is called Keys to End Youth Homelessness. It's a HUD-funded demonstration project. It's a collaboration between a couple different agencies in the greater Cincinnati area: The Salvation Army, Bethany House Services, Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati, the Y.W.C.A., Lighthouse Youth Services, and The Children's Health Center. We’re united through our funder, Strategies to End Homelessness.
There are other communities in the nation that are also doing this project in different ways, making sure it's unique to their communities. Our focus here is on youth homelessness and how that intersects with juvenile justice and things like that. We have an L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. component, making sure that young folks who identify within that community also have help finding housing because they face discrimination. [We focus on] people of color who may have had some interactions with the legal system, whether it's on the juvenile level or the adult level. And then of course, you know, youth who are single moms, pregnant and parenting youth, youth with disabilities. It's multifaceted, but it's interesting work.
Do you feel valued in the work that you do? By your employer and your community at large?
I definitely feel valued by my employer. I have a great support system: coworkers, my supervisor, my executive director. They gave me two days off because I've been working so much because of COVID.
Regarding the community at large, I'm not sure if the community really knows what's going on. I would have to question if the greater Cincinnati community really realizes what homelessness looks like within Cincinnati. Homelessness in Cincinnati is not just the guy on the corner begging for money – it's families, it's kids, it's older adults. I know I appreciate what I do; I know my clients appreciate what I do, and at the end of the day, that's kind of enough for me. [In Cincinnati in 2018, 14% of our homeless population is aged 55 or older, 55% of our homeless population is 35 years old – and younger, 36% are under the age of 25, and 25% of our homeless population is under the age of 18.]
Concerning the lack of knowledge about homelessness and housing insecurity, where do you think that lack of communication is? Where is the disconnect between the homeless community, the people who work with them, and the greater Cincinnati community?
I think people don't really want to know. It would be something they would have to acknowledge like, “Oh I have this privilege,” or, “I could very well be them.”
The real difference between people who are working and kind of teetering on the edge of homelessness is not a whole lot. A lot of people are one paycheck away from potentially becoming a client of mine. [Only 41% of Americans are able to cover a $1,000 emergency with savings.] For a lot of people, that's not something that they can comprehend or wrap their minds around. And I think it also plays into capitalism. It has people feeling some type of way about things and being like, “Those homeless people are like that because they have addictions, or they made bad choices.” It's like, no: It's wage inequality; it's the fact that these “low-skilled” jobs get paid pennies to the dollar; it's the fact that minimum wage hasn't really moved in 30-plus years. There are a lot of things in play with trying to figure out how to make greater Cincinnati understand what homelessness is. [Today, 78 percent of Black moms with children are employed compared to an average of just 66 percent of white, Asian American, and Latinx moms. However, Black moms are disproportionately represented in jobs that pay minimum wage. The value of minimum wage has dropped 31% since 1968. Workers have $6,800 less each year to spend on essentials than workers 50 years ago.]
Are a lot of your clients working? What kind of jobs do they typically hold?
So, my moms that do work, a lot of them work in the healthcare sector as environmental service techs, housekeepers, home health aides, S.T.N.A.s; some are C.N.A.s. We're seeing a lot of daycare workers, fast food workers, some retail, warehouse (like Amazon and D.H.L.), day laborers, temp workers, a lot of stuff like that. [We’re] trying to talk to them about education and getting more than just a G.E.D. To them that seems kind of unattainable; they're like, “What about my kids? How am I going to pay for it?” There are a lot of programs out there that will help somewhat, but not enough to really make a change. That's why I got really excited when Cincinnati got a Scholar House. I'm excited for it and I can't wait to see all they do.
How many of the families that you're serving do you estimate are being paid a self-sufficient wage?
I have a lot of part-timers. And the ones that are working full-time, I mean, they aren't making it. And what messes it up is that if they are working full-time and trying to get assistance through Jobs and Family Services, they make too much money. It's like, I can budget them all day long, but we can only stretch a dollar so far. [This occurrence is called the “Cliff Effect.” The Cliff Effect is when a small increase in wages triggers a complete loss of benefits, almost always leaving families in a worse off situation financially.]
I'm thinking of this one mom that I have: She works at a hospital; her hours got cut because of COVID, and she's trying to apply for food stamps. Now normally, when she's working her normal hours and stuff, she can be okay with a little bit of assistance from me in terms of maybe stopping at a food pantry. But she has a baby, and babies require formula, diapers, and wipes. I can provide her with diapers; I can't provide her with wipes because that's not something I always have on hand. She's applying for WIC; WIC will cover formula, and then I'm giving her diapers, but wipes she would have to pay for on her own because wipes aren't covered by WIC. The things you'd want WIC to cover, they won't, and it's just like, “If you would just help, it would be great.”
Can you expand more on the greatest challenges you've seen your clients face? Especially now dealing with COVID-19 – how has that exposed or intensified these realities for them?
Yeah, COVID-19 has really slammed me hard. I feel like everything got intense, really quick: just constantly making sure that they have basic needs, and me trying to find enough resources out there to be able to cover things. Luckily, I was able to provide vouchers, and The Salvation Army food pantries are still open, but our food pantries are working on reduced hours because we had to reduce our staff. The Freestore Foodbank, bless their heart, they were able to keep some things afloat, but there was a point where they were worried about running out of food, too.
All the providers for the homeless communities during March and April were spending three, almost four times the budget we spend in a month trying to move people out of congregate living into hotel spaces, trying to make sure we had enough food to cover all these people who suddenly got laid off and didn't know what they were going to do, trying to make sure we had enough diapers, just basic necessities… I was constantly getting texts from clients like, “I need food; I need wipes; I need formula. What am I going to do?”
Luckily, I was able to assure a lot of my clients, “Don't worry about your rent; I got your rent. I know Duke said they weren't going to charge you, but when that ends and Duke wants their money, you're not going to be in a hole. I'm still going to pay your Duke. Don't worry about water; I'm still going to pay that.” But it was just like basic materials: hygiene products, soap, laundry detergent, and grocery stores not having enough, and you're trying to get wipes and cleaning products and figure out how you're going to do that. It happened overnight. And you're just like, “Okay, I gotta ride this out.”
How do you feel COVID-19 and all these barriers have affected Black women and the Black community?
COVID-19 has affected the Black community in a huge way. We're the ones dying from it in big numbers. It's us and then the indigenous population dying from it in huge numbers because of our lack of quality healthcare, our distress in the healthcare system, so many different things. Black women are a lot of the essential workers, or they're the ones getting their hours cut or they're just getting laid off, period. So then having to go through and try to get unemployment – which has been taking months to get – trying to find food pantries, trying to get resources for their kids…
COVID-19 has really shown the mass amounts of inequality, the mass amounts of barriers that can be put in place when you are a country that glorifies greed and isn't prepared for a virus to come in and start wiping out people. It's just hard. And Black people have this distrust of these systems because history has shown us that these systems are not built for us. And on the other hand, having people saying, “Oh, it's not going to affect me; I'm super healthy,” and then not taking precautions…
It's scary. You see everybody and their mom on these patios with no masks and you're just like, “Oh my goodness, guys, we're about to be stuck inside again.”
Black people have this distrust of these systems because history has shown us that these systems are not built for us.
COVID has also exposed a lot of racism within the medical community. When someone's going to the doctor and the doctor's saying, “Oh, you're okay, here's some aspirin. Walk it off.” Then all of a sudden, they come back and they're literally knocking on death's door because medical professionals aren't taking them seriously. Or the closest E.R. or urgent care is 20, 30, 45 minutes away from them. And then overcrowding and lack of funding for some of these clinics… A lot of the clinics in Cincinnati, I've noticed, are in more of the poorer areas. We're talking about Price Hill, Cumminsville, Delhi, Westwood, Winton Woods, Winton Terrace – places like that have these tiny little clinics with these super long wait times. There’s a lot of underlying health conditions, so a lot of asthma and diabetes, obesity, hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease, being on dialysis and stuff. It's not having access to quality healthcare or understanding preventative healthcare, like exercising and eating right and stuff like that – which ties into a lot of things like environmental racism and food pathways. We can spend days trying to unravel and unpack everything. A lot of it just comes down to mistrust.
And then you have this section of Black people that want to pray it away. So, you're trying to use religion to pray away COVID which yes, there is very much a place for prayer and spirituality, but there's a reason why we have scientists.
Do you feel like a lot of your clients are questioning what we're supposed to do because of conflicting information?
It's funny, I remember like two weeks ago we got masks and we gave them to clients and the clients were kind of looking at us like, “What do you want us to do with this?”
And I'm like, “Wear it!”
And they're like, “I don't need to wear this mask. I can't catch it in the air.” And it's like, yeah, you can. That's exactly how you catch it.
Can you talk a little bit about some of these big barriers that stop upward economic mobility right now?
Just money to pay for tuition, to cover if you need special shoes, scrubs, or equipment. Childcare is a huge one. Before COVID, childcare was a barrier because it's hard to get daycare providers to be willing to wait for Jobs and Family Services to pay them for a child when they can take a paying client who has money upfront. So, you have very limited spots for children who are experiencing homelessness. During COVID it's been much worse. And now with this whole daycare plan, it's going to be a nightmare because of the ratio requirements.
Transportation. I'm very glad Issue 7 passed to give SORTA more money, because they need 24-hour services, longer routes, routes in the other parts of the city – more into the West Side and up north into more of our suburban areas would be fantastic.
What are some things that can make people lose ground?
Losing jobs, losing daycare, bad relationships. Bad relationships sometimes spiral everything out of control. Losing motivation if there's any personal drama, anything like that... Mental health.
How have you been advocating for mental health for your clients?
For my clients, I've been giving them a lot of resources to Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health and the Mental Health Access Point, and just trying to be a listening ear for them. But it's been hard. Mental health, addiction services – they've taken the hit from cutting hours and staff.
What are some positive actions and changes that you’ve seen happening in the community over the past few months? What do you hope will continue or improve over the next few years?
What I've seen happen during this whole COVID thing is how quickly the community came together to figure out ways to make sure the homeless population didn't become the super hot spot. The health department has been a fantastic partner for the entire homeless community here in Cincinnati, advocating for us on the local and state level. Dr. Acton has been a great help, too.
And then just sharing resources, trying to figure out how we are going to pay for this… Landlords, surprisingly, have been somewhat open to renting to people and taking our money – landlords that we never thought we could work with in the past. We've been able to access them because it's been guaranteed money, which has been interesting and kind of worrisome at the same time: “Why are you just now wanting to work with us when it's a global pandemic?” We'll see what happens with that.
What I hope happens in the next couple years is less restrictions on how we work as a homeless community. We've applied for a lot of waivers through our funders to get some restrictions [temporarily] lifted off how we operate as service providers, and they've been granted. So I kind of hope some of those restrictions stay in place because they're super beneficial.
Because you never know – the person working next to you, the person walking beside you, your kids’ best friend could literally be sleeping on the streets.
I would like to see more landlords come to our table and understand where we're coming from. Our clients may not be the perfect tenants, but with a little bit of guidance, they could be excellent tenants. No, they may not have all the income right at that second, but they will, because they're working with us. We wouldn't just put them in any old place and set them up for failure, because then they'll be back in our system and they'll just keep cycling through, and that's what we're trying to stop.
I hope the city realizes during this COVID pandemic that we need more transportation, we need more low-income housing, we need more daycare providers, and we need more basic services. We need less condos; we need less million-dollar office buildings that are sitting empty. We need more compassion in our government and a government that truly wants to work for the people instead of corporations.
If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing that could have a powerful domino effect on other issues, what would it be?
Rent control in Cincinnati: a true rent control, where rent is literally 30% or less of your entire monthly income. Some of these rents are outrageous. There is no reason why you would pay $1,200 for a 2-bedroom apartment, and not in the nicest part of the city. You should not be paying $1,400, $1,500, $1,600, $2,000 for a 3-bedroom apartment, and then turn around and have to pay utilities. It's outrageous.
Tell us about an influential woman in your life.
I've had so many influential women in my life – from teachers to professors to my mom, my grandmas. I've had a lot of great female energy around me that has shaped me to be the woman that I am.
My mom has been great; she's taught me how to be strong, how to run a household, how to just deal with life. I've had professors who've taught me how to navigate the professional and academic world as being a woman of color – how to deal with microaggressions, racism, sexism. My current supervisor is someone who I also look up to immensely because she is doing so much and came into a weird situation and was able to just turn it all around. She's been great.
I did a summer internship in the mountains of West Virginia, and the executive director of that camp started the camp from practically nothing – just this little house and a couple of horses. It changed these kids’ lives in some of the poorest parts of West Virginia. She influenced me to rethink how I think about people and their life stories.
What important message do you wish to leave our readers with?
Compassion. Because you never know – the person working next to you, the person walking beside you, your kids’ best friend could literally be sleeping on the streets; they could be sleeping in a shelter. Having more compassion and understanding that homelessness is not because of bad choices, it's not because of drugs or alcoholism or anything like that; it could literally be because I just don't make enough money. It could be, “I had a landlord who was not understanding and now I have no other option and the shelters are full so now I'm here, sleeping in my car with my kids.” You never know. Homelessness looks like so many different things, looks like so many different people. Homelessness is not what you think it is.
Continue exploring “Questioning the American Dream: A Look at the Economic Mobility of Black Women in Cincinnati” at womenofcincy.org/economic-mobility.