Getting out of the Rain
Originally from South Carolina, Teresa came to Lexington three years ago. Her beginning here wasn’t good. A man she met in Tennessee enticed her to Lexington, offering her a room in his home. She arrived to find that the man had no home. Instead, he bought a tent at Walmart, invited her to share that, and then raped her.
After this incident, Teresa went to live at the Salvation Army but was kicked out after two months. “We’re not allowed to have phones there, and I forgot to turn mine in,” she says ruefully. Next, she spent a number of nights at The Community Inn but had to vacate during the daytime. “When the library is open, I can go there, but sometimes there’s just no place to go. So I really don’t like rainy days. Snowy days are even worse.”
Teresa has had jobs at Walmart, Keeneland, and the Car Auction. The Salvation Army gives her bus tickets so that she can get to work. Her jobs have come through temp agencies which take a portion of her minimum wage salary.
“What I want most,” Teresa says, “. . . is a real job and a place to live.”