According to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, most Americans are like Jonica Jamison and are one step away from homelessness. Before his eviction, Jamison had a steady career.
Due to her pregnancy, she lost her job and her family became homeless.
Jonica Jamison, her husband and children are homeless after losing their jobs after taking significant time off during a difficult pregnancy in Charlotte.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s the day before Thanksgiving, but 38-year-old Jonica Jamison has no vacation plans. She’s wearing elephant-print pajamas and cuddling in a hotel bed with her eldest daughter Eden, 15, and youngest daughter Everly, 1. Her middle daughter, 9-year-old Eastin, stays with her father on weekends.
She says the hotel room is the quietest it’s been in a while. Her family has been living here for several weeks, all five of them crammed into a two-bed space with a small refrigerator, microwave and hot plate for the kitchen. Every day, she and her husband, Tristian Harris, try to raise enough cash to pay for the next night’s accommodation. Jamison ends up calling his father to ask for a loan more often than he expected. She doesn’t know when or if she’ll be able to pay it back.
The family has been homeless for 14 months since Harris’ multiple sclerosis flare-up and Jamison’s difficult childbirth left them jobless over the summer and ultimately forced to move out in September 2024. For a year, the family moved between various extended family homes and hotels, staying away for weeks at a time. Jamison said she spent the night in the car with Harris and the baby. The hotel she’s currently staying at is far from her parents and close to the job Jamison worked for three weeks before being fired in the fall for taking too much time off to care for her family. It costs $100 a night, but at least staying there means everyone gets to spend time together.
Jamison receives a text from Eden’s boyfriend’s father inviting the family to Thanksgiving dinner the next day. Just mentioning her boyfriend’s name brings a big smile to Eden’s face. They’ve only been together for three months, but she says it’s been a distraction from the turmoil her family is going through.
The next day, Jamison sends his family off to a Thanksgiving feast. She stays alone in a hotel, enjoying a few hours of peace with “no one calling my name.”
“I don’t want to just be a caregiver,” Jamison says. She wants to work as a school counselor, just like she did for ten years before the world fell apart. She hopes her family can return to stable housing and indulge in the small luxuries that make life enjoyable, like manicures and dance classes. She wants to increase her savings. She wants a kitchen where she can cook for her family and prepare a week’s worth of meals. She wants Eden to be able to be a child by changing Everly’s diapers and bottle-feeding her, instead of always trying to “grow up a little.”
But between coordinating her husband’s neurology appointments, managing 9-year-old Eastin’s epilepsy symptoms and following up with Everly’s pediatrician about a cranial helmet to correct his severe plagiocephaly, on top of the typical mental strain of motherhood and the less typical stress of being homeless, Jamison is in survival mode with no clear path forward.
“The situation is really the worst it’s ever been,” Jamison said. “And it really has to do with me having to take care of everyone else.”
Many Americans are closer to homelessness than they think.
According to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, most Americans are like Jamison two years ago and are one step away from homelessness. Before her eviction, Jamison had been working as a school counselor for 10 years and was earning about $60,000 a year.
Jamison’s salary was on par with the median income of American workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But in today’s economy, even workers earning six-figure salaries are living beyond their paychecks, a recent study found.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, millions of people are at risk of homelessness and two-thirds of very low-income households spend more than 50% of their income on housing, against the recommended 30%. Donald Whitehead, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said the homeless population could double in the next few years due to federal cuts to Medicaid and public housing.
“This is common. There are a lot of people who are constantly on the brink financially,” said Steve Berg, chief policy officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Angela Williams, president and CEO of United Way Worldwide, agreed: “Each of us is one diagnosis or disaster away from reaching a breaking point.”
When it comes to homelessness, caregiving is “a much bigger issue than people realize,” said Ann Marie Staudenmeyer, senior legal counsel at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless in Washington, D.C., especially when child care costs rival rent. When families pivot to supporting a loved one with a disability or medical issue, the extra expense could “very easily” be enough to push them into homelessness, Berg said.
Family caregivers perform an average of 27 hours of caregiving work per week, which becomes a problem when rent comes due and they run out of time to work professionally or find paid employment.
“I need more time.”
Jamison loved her job as a school counselor. But taking several months of unpaid medical leave during a high-risk pregnancy in 2023 took a toll on her bank account and caused her to miss rent payments. Her blood sugar levels were dangerously high and her liver was failing. It was a scary time, Harris and Eden say. Eden was worried that her mother was “on her deathbed”.
In a written response to a court filing regarding non-payment of rent dated October 27, 2023, Ms Jamison described her sick leave as “unexpected” and explained how she had been “run around” trying to secure accommodation at work.
“I have informed my landlord that I am attempting to pay all outstanding rent,” Jamison wrote. “I need more time.”
Jamison lost her baby and then became pregnant again with Everly. It was also a high-risk pregnancy, so doctors tried to admit her multiple times, Jamison said.
“I was signing myself out because I thought, ‘I have to take care of my kids,'” she says.
Jamison worked sporadically and took paid and unpaid medical leave from 2024 to 2025. The contract with the district was not renewed at the end of the 2024-25 school year. She wants to file a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but says it’s “laughable” how long and difficult the process is. She used up her retirement benefits and later applied for unemployment benefits, but says her status is still “pending resolution.”
The family was evicted in September 2024, and Everly was born five weeks early the following month.
Although heartbreaking, Whitehead said Jamison’s story is not unique. The number of homeless families increased by 39% from 2023 to 2024, the largest increase on record. And for some families, it can be nearly impossible to escape homelessness. Whitehead said landlords are reluctant to rent to people who have been evicted in the past. And to secure an apartment, families must pay a significant amount upfront to pay a deposit and first month’s rent.
Meanwhile, families like Jamison’s who don’t have the means must choose between basic needs such as health care, housing, and food.
“These are the hard choices we’re asking people to make,” Williams said.
Disability diagnosis and shelter solutions are out of reach
Jamison said the girls are now doing better. Eastin’s anti-seizure medication worked wonders, and Eden’s new school was good for her. Both are thanks to Ms. Jamison’s passionate advocacy on behalf of her daughters. Jamison says she will never forget the promise Eastin made when he was diagnosed with epilepsy.
“It was horrible to watch,” Jamison tearfully recalled how medical professionals stimulated Eastin’s seizures in order to diagnose her. At the same time, Jamison was relieved. “Finally, I have the evidence I need to get my baby saved,” she remembers thinking.
Harris has started IV therapy and is able to work some days when symptoms such as fatigue, muscle weakness, cognitive and emotional strain, and gastrointestinal issues do not get in the way. Jamison said she has tried applying for disability, but the process takes a long time.
“Just having MS is not enough,” Berg says. “It’s a very complex process, and it’s set up to make a lot of mistakes and be difficult to execute.”
Jamison said she looked into subsidized housing and shelters in her area, but found there wasn’t room for her family or she didn’t meet the criteria to receive assistance. Some programs, such as Charlotte Family Housing, require parents to work consistently before providing temporary housing.
Governments and nonprofits need to rethink how they serve people in need, Williams said. Jamison holds a master’s degree. She is always applying for counseling jobs, but none of them work out.
Jamison says she doesn’t want to be a stay-at-home mom, but she feels like one even though she doesn’t have a place to call home.
“It’s up to me to figure out what happens next.”
The “rush” to get Eden and Eastin to school begins before 5:30 a.m.
The two sisters share one of the hotel beds, and most nights baby Everly wakes up in her playpen and insists on joining them. One morning in mid-December, Everly is in bed, and the sisters take turns using the bathroom and rummaging through various backpacks, totes, and suitcases for a change of clothes. There are only three dresser drawers and one small closet shared by five people.
Jamison supervises Eastin’s tooth brushing, but deflates when Eden comes back into the room and says he missed the bus. With just one car, Harris set out to secure a check for a few days’ worth of delivery work he had done last week – enough money to pay for tonight’s hotel stay. It may be a while before Eden is able to drive to school.
When Harris returns empty-handed, Jamison begins to panic. Harris says she can’t cash the check until after 9 a.m., but she needs to be at another job by 9:20. If he doesn’t cash the check, they won’t be able to stay in the hotel tonight. If he doesn’t work, he won’t be able to pay for next week’s hotel bill.
“It’s up to me to figure out what happens next,” Jamison says. Today, she was scheduled to pick up their food stamps and follow up on her job search. “I’m juggling everything, and sometimes I’m literally just trying to survive.”
Everly whimpers as she is held. Although she would really like to walk around, Jamison doesn’t trust hotel room floors, so the baby is held all day or naps in bed.
Harris eventually received a check, but only worked half a day. Jamison negotiated with the hotel manager to tidy up the room and put away the totes and suitcases so the whole family would have a place to sit and sleep when they got home. Soon Eastin comes back from school, then Eden. Jamison is exhausted. She doesn’t know what to have for dinner.
“I feel very mentally drained,” Jamison said. “Although I know there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Eastin heats a package of ramen in the microwave. Eden takes a frozen chicken sandwich out of the mini-fridge and heats it up, making breakfast and dinner the same thing. She then feeds Everly some yogurt.
The family spends the evening telling jokes and telling old family stories. Jamison plays Beyoncé’s “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” on her phone and bribes Eden to dance, promising her that she can meet her boyfriend over the weekend.
“Manipulation is at its peak,” Eden says as she moves Everly’s playpen.
“I don’t mind,” Jamison says, smiling at her first child. “I love watching you dance.”
Tomorrow is Saturday. “It’s nice to go out and do something, but we don’t have the money,” Jamison said. Maybe they’ll go to the library. Perhaps she will donate her plasma to pay for her next night’s hotel stay. She ponders her options and plans her days ahead, knowing that her plans could be thwarted at any time by new emergencies.
“Plans A, B, C, D, E, and F that kept me from getting to this point all failed,” she says.
Madeline Mitchell’s role covering women and the care economy for USA TODAY is supported by partnerships such as: extremely important and Journalism funding partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
Contact Madeline at: memitchell@usatoday.com and @maddiemitch_ With X.
