Struggling woman helps other middle aged unemployed strangers

[Liberal_in_LA]

Unemployed and forgotten

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"I used to rescue animals, now I rescue people and animals," Sexton said. "When asked why, I say, ‘It is because I'm a Kansan.' We are nice and help people and besides, it's the right thing to do."

When asked why she was letting strangers into her home, her answer was humbling.

"They're middle-of-the-road people just like me," she said. "They've fallen on hard times and someone has to give them a chance. People need a place to sleep, to take a shower, to not fear where their next meal is coming from. People need hope."

Currently Sexton is living with two roommates.

David, 47, of Massachusetts, who previously had a six-figure income, now chases storms repairing people's roofs and homes.

Sue, 54, of Chicago, like Jarrin, contacted Sexton when she was about to be homeless. Sexton ended up paying for another week stay for her at a Motel 6 and sent $20 so she could buy some food. After that she sent Sue more money so she could drive to Kansas City.

Sexton said she felt like she was running some modern form of the Underground Railroad out of her apartment.

http://www.reformer.com/ci_18582741?source=most_viewed

[Horse with no Name]

1. I've been seeing a resurgence of "rooms for rent"

in the large antebellum homes where I live.

We are absolutely descending into the 30's and 40's.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. room in mansion might provide quality life for some.

[hfojvt]

4. why should that been seen as a step back?

I have always been in favor of cooperative living. I spend lots of time looking at the 1870 and 1880 censuses and almost every household had other people living there, either as farmhands, servants, or boarders. Well what is wrong with that? I also wonder why they seemed better able to trust each other, to live together? Maybe it was because most people didn't have all that much worth stealing.

[Horse with no Name]

5. I understand what you are saying

but, the people that are renting rooms (in this area) USED to have homes.

[Warpy]

6. I knew people who took in "boarders" in the 60s, too

They doubled the kids up and rented what space they could free up to help with the grocery bills. The boarder got breakfast and fended for himself for lunch and supper.

My own grandmother fed herself and my mother oatmeal 3 times a day during the worst part of the Depression so she wouldn't have to take in a boarder.

The real problems are in the yuppie McMansion communities. Those places have wide open floor plans and lots of recreation areas but too few bedrooms to be useful in hard times.

I live in an area of post WWII crackerbox starter houses, so I don't see the signs, either. I'm sure they're sprouting up in the older parts of town.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. yes, the 'open floor plan' doesn't lend it self to division. home buyers on HGTV

shows are obsessed with the open floor plan.

[Warpy]

9. I've always hated the open floor plans

because I'm a sloppy cook and I hate to look at the mess I'm going to have to clean up later when I'm eating my dinner. It takes all the pleasure out of it.

[dana_b]

2. what an amazing woman

and it may come down to all of us doing this for each other.

[Zookeeper]

7. Some of these young Tea Pots and Randians, if they have...

their way, are going to be confronted with the need to take in their own parents and grandparents. They want to cut or eliminate social security and medicare, but forget that most Americans don't have enough retirement savings to support themselves.

[Morizovich]

10. How.....unRepublican!

:applause:

[whathehell]

11. What a wonderful person!..n/t