Fast countdownto homelessness
Not many people can point to the exact cause of suddenly becoming homeless, much less put a number to it. For Tri-Nu Little, the number was 31.
That’s the number of days it took her rent to increase by $650, a more than 60 percent jump in monthly payments, made insurmountable by the building owner’s decision to stop accepting Section 8 housing assistance.
“I couldn’t afford to pay that rent. I was on unemployment. I couldn’t afford to even move,” said Little, a 38-year-old single mother who was living in East Oakland at the time. “It can happen to anybody. If you get laid off of your job, you could be here within a month.