PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kelly Gonzales, Member of the Public, on Shelter Evictions and Education Challenges for Asylum Seekers
0:37:25
·
7 min
Kelly Gonzales, a Venezuelan asylum seeker and mother of seven, testifies about the challenges faced by her family due to frequent shelter evictions and its impact on her children's education. She describes being evicted five times, difficulties in finding shelters that accept large families, and the disruption to her children's schooling and access to benefits like transportation.
- Gonzales reports sleeping on hospital stretchers while waiting for shelter placements
- She highlights the lengthy process of address changes affecting school transportation benefits
- Her children often have to choose between attending medical appointments or school due to transportation issues
Kelly Gonzales (via Spanish Interpreter)
0:37:25
Okay.
0:37:25
My name is Kelly Gonzales.
0:37:27
I'm really from Venezuela, South America.
0:37:30
And I belong to a group woman.
0:37:33
It's called in Spanish.
0:37:36
Right?
0:37:36
And this is the name of our group.
0:37:38
Continue.
UNKNOWN
0:37:45
Okay.
Kelly Gonzales (via Spanish Interpreter)
0:38:10
Okay.
0:38:10
Since I came from Venezuela in January, I have been living in this immigration shelters and I have been evicted around 7 times from these, shelters.
0:38:21
And this is very bad especially because of me and because of my children.
0:38:28
No.
0:38:28
I'm sorry.
0:38:29
Not 7 times.
0:38:29
5 times.
0:38:30
My apologies.
0:38:31
I was evicted 5 times from the shelters.
0:38:33
Continue.
Halema Wali
0:38:34
Okay.
Kelly Gonzales (via Spanish Interpreter)
0:38:52
Okay.
0:38:53
And this is a big problem for all of us because my children are new in the United States.
0:38:58
As you know, the education in Venezuela is different.
0:39:01
So they're getting adapted to the American school education.
0:39:05
So what happened, we had to be processed together.
0:39:09
So they cannot process only myself and the shield because individually.
0:39:13
Although us we had to be processed together.
0:39:15
Okay.
0:39:45
This is the main problem.
0:39:47
I have 7 children.
0:39:48
Mhmm.
0:39:49
So, you know, it's many children together.
0:39:52
So the problem is very hard for me to go from one shelter to another with 7 children, and some of the some of those shelter don't want to attack me because the amount of children I have has 7 children.
0:40:05
When they find out I have 7 children, they don't want to take us.
0:40:27
My situation has been so bad that even sleeping on a stretcher.
0:40:30
You know, like the ones from the hospitals.
0:40:32
Right?
0:40:33
And because I've been waiting for a very long time, sometimes for 1 week, 2 weeks for me for my my case to be processed for those shelters.
0:40:59
Okay.
0:41:00
Also, another problem that we have, you know, the the children have a benefit provided by the schools.
0:41:07
There's the transportation and benefits like this.
0:41:10
You know, because they are moving us so often from one shelter to another, my children cannot take advantage of this school benefit or transportation because of this.
0:41:30
The problem is that the school need 2 weeks in order to process a change of address.
0:41:36
So that means, 2 weeks to process the change of address and 2 weeks to transfer the children from one school to another.
0:41:44
And this is a very long process.
0:41:46
Continue.
0:41:54
And this is the reason why my 7 children cannot enjoy this benefit of school transportation because what I'm facing right now.
0:42:22
Another problem is this, because they don't have a steady school transportation.
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What is happening is this.
0:42:29
Let's see they have a medical appointment and also they had to go to school.
0:42:34
My poor children had to decide between missing a class or missing a medical appointment is very bad for all of us.
0:43:02
There were situations when I need to take all the children to a medical appointment and they had to miss a school days or, or a day of school because of this.
0:43:26
And this is why I'm concerned.
0:43:28
I came from Venezuela to the to the United States thinking about my children.
0:43:34
I wanted a better education for my children.
0:43:37
The education they don't have in my home country.
0:43:57
Okay.
0:43:59
Unable to find a steady place to live, even as a shelter, our life will change because I will be able to find a job and so my children will be able to enjoy this school transportation benefit.
0:44:14
But, in order to enjoy these things we need a steady place for us to live.
0:44:36
It's very important us as mothers to invest in the education of our children because our children will be our support when we, we become old and when we get into this old age.
0:44:49
We, we can count on them as an old people when we get this age.
0:44:53
So thank you for listening to us.
0:44:56
Okay.
0:44:56
Thank you very much.
