Penn Station Inhabitant Finally Has a Home of Her Own
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Version 0 of 1. They called themselves the Penn Station Nation, a ragtag group of roughly 50 homeless people who congregated around New York City’s bustling transportation hub. For 10 years, Tamara Hutchinson was a member, but the bonds were that of family — several dozen kindred spirits who watched one another’s backs. “I was homeless and happy,” Ms. Hutchinson, 46, said. She always had a boyfriend, many in fact; traveling in pairs kept everyone safer, she said. They always slept in groups in areas where they could rest undisturbed. When she could not find the group at night, she would check into a shelter. “Sometimes you forget you’re homeless until you want to go home,” she said. Every night in New York City, roughly 60,000 people sleep in a shelter, up from about 59,000 in August, a striking contrast in a city of gleaming towers and tremendous individual wealth. Thousands of homeless do not make it to a shelter in the winter and end up sleeping in subway stations and on the streets, bundled in blankets and in layers of clothing. During the day, Ms. Hutchinson ate and showered at churches. She begged for money or food outside Madison Square Garden after shows and games, always hoping to find a generous person. She also found assistance through the charitable organization Midnight Run, a volunteer program that distributes food, clothing, blankets and personal care items to the city’s homeless, helping Ms. Hutchinson preserve her dignity. “Most of the time, you couldn’t tell we were homeless,” she said. Throughout her years on the streets, Ms. Hutchinson continued to take her medicine, a rarity among the homeless, for schizophrenia and mood disorder. Without it, she said, her mind was filled with voices. “They wouldn’t let me sleep,” Ms. Hutchinson recalled. “I was tossing and turning. It was horrible.” Soon after her diagnosis in 1996, Ms. Hutchinson placed her daughter Breyanna, who was 2 at the time, in the care of the girl’s father. She also halted a promising songwriting career in rap. Under the stage name Essence, Ms. Hutchinson had performed at a number of clubs. In 1991, one of her songs, “Lyrics 2 the Rhythm,” was produced by the renowned hip-hop artist Grandmaster Flash for the film “New Jack City.” While she was pregnant with her second daughter in 2003, she went off her medication. After her daughter was born, the girl was placed in the care of Ms. Hutchinson’s aunt and uncle and remains in their custody. At 33, Ms. Hutchinson wound up on the streets, where she found unexpected camaraderie amid tremendous struggles. But years later, her life changed. In 2013, Ms. Hutchinson went to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center because of a persistent cough that over-the-counter remedies had not alleviated. Tests revealed that she had pneumocystis pneumonia and that she was H.I.V. positive. Many people in the Penn Station Nation were sexually active, and she said some of them had also learned they had H.I.V. “Ever since then, I’ve been off the streets,” she said. “They told me that I could never be homeless again.” Ms. Hutchinson spent the next two weeks at the hospital, where she met a caseworker from the AIDS Service Center for New York City. She was connected to the H.I.V./AIDS Services Administration, which assists individuals living with the disease, and secured transitional housing. “When I got the key after getting discharged, I just stood there looking out the window for like 20 minutes,” Ms. Hutchinson said. “Then I took off everything, got in the bed, and I slept for two days.” This year, she found permanent housing through a social services organization in the Bronx. Her $971 monthly rent is largely covered by the Services for the UnderServed Inc., a social services organization in the city. Ms. Hutchinson’s only monthly income comes from the government: $733 from Social Security and $16 in food stamps. The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, used $1,000 in Neediest funds to buy Ms. Hutchinson furniture for her apartment, including a dining set, a sofa and a dresser. Ms. Hutchinson remains in contact with her daughters. The older one lives and attends college in Texas; her 13-year-old, True, resides on Long Island. As much as she misses True, Ms. Hutchinson said she knew it was better for her to be living with her aunt and uncle. Ms. Hutchinson takes online classes in creative writing and business management. Friends in the music industry have encouraged her to write again. But progress on all fronts has been slow. “I’m going to take my time because I want longevity,” Ms. Hutchinson said. “You have all your life to get finished.” What happened between now and her once promising music career — 10 haunting years of destitution and desperation — is difficult to overcome, she said. She tries to stay positive by focusing on the fact that she has finally achieved what she had longed for. “While I was with them, I missed the music, I missed working, I missed going to parties, clubs,” she said. “Now that I’m home, back in the house, I have to feel better so that I can get back to work.” She wants to build on the momentum and has created a five-year plan: Save some money, lose weight and receive her degrees and certifications so she can make music again. “I got no excuses,” Ms. Hutchinson said. “I could sit here and act broke, homeless and sick if I wanted to. Nobody would know. But I really can get up and back to work.” |