Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America

by Lisa Gray-Garcia

Eleven-year-old Lisa becomes her mother’s primary support when they face the prospect of homelessness. As Dee, a single mother, struggles with the demons of her own childhood of neglect and abuse, Lisa has to quickly assume the role of an adult in an attempt to keep some stability in their lives. “Dee and Tiny” ultimately become underground celebrities in San Francisco, squatting in storefronts and performing the “art of homelessness.” Their story, filled with black humor and incisive analysis, illuminates the roots of poverty, the criminalization of poor families, and their struggle for survival.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Social Justice, Poverty, Biography, Psychology, Feminism

287 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

Reviews

[Worthless Bum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is fucking depressing. It is the autobiographical story of a young girl who is forced to take care of her mentally ill mother, who is unable to work. It paints an ugly picture of what its like to be poor in America. I read this book during an especially depressing time in my life and I remember feeling very sad and angry that events such as described in this book are allowed to occur in the richest country in the world. It makes hard line fiscal conservative, anti-welfare types seem especially heartless and repugnant (though the book does not delve into politics).

[Gronk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. This is an important book. Read it.

Typically when we read about poor people, homeless people we read through the lens of a journalist who is neither homeless nor poor. This is the work of a poor person who grew up in poverty. Lisa Gray-Garcia grew up living in temporary housing or no housing at all. Her formal education stopped in 5th grade. Yet she is not uneducated. She writes extremely well. Her achievements chronicled in this work are simply extraordinary.

Gray-Garcia does a great job of showing us the cycle of poverty, especially of poor abused single mothers. (And a warning - the abuse is stomach turning.) She does a great job of showing how the system is stacked against the poor. She shows us how and why our conception of homeless people as lazy, disorganized freeloaders is not accurate.

Some of what is written may not be accurate. For example, reconstructing the life of her grandmother reads like historical fiction to me. And some of what is written may make you question why she or her mother did what they did. For example, adopting a child when you can't afford a place to live or daily food seems crazy. But the story and accomplishments of Gray-Garcia are overwhelmingly incredible.

My favorite quote form the book:
"Recognition is very important for most writers and artists, but for folks dealing with extreme poverty, recognition can be a life-line with life changing implications. So much about the experience of homelessness and abject poverty is humiliation. In the eyes of society you are worthless, trash, a burden or pitiful at best. Your awareness and knowledge are not considered scholarship, your words are not valued as art or theory, you are talked about, not spoken with, written about, not read. For me, recognition meant that now I had the strength to go on living because now I had hope that there would be change, that people would hear my voice, that I could affect my own life and maybe,someday, the lives of others."

[Fei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful memoir + account of the birth and growth of POOR magazine

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa "Tiny" Grey-Garcia graced our bookstore in Philadelphia with her presence and incredible thoughts. She came off as incredibly intelligent, very creative, and a very likable person. She is the founder of POOR magazine, dedicated to the poor when all the other magazines seem dedicated to people who don't need anymore dedication (rockstars, politicians, actors, etc.). When at the Shoe, she talked about strength through organization and treating people in that organization like family, even when you want to butt heads with them. She talked about strength through art and how even in a life of constant struggle, you never give up, especially when the entire culture is set against you (peppering her speech with phrases like DWP, or "driving while poor", underlining her crystal clear thoughts on our society). She had a beautiful picture of her mother, Mama Dee, who she was close was with her entire life.

I had to read her book after listening to her speak. In Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America, Garcia lays out her origins through telling the story of her grandmother who immigrated from Ireland and had to make hard choices, her mother Dee, her wealthy father who left them to fend for themselves, and finally herself. Her mother could not work a job because of disability, so the two eked a living on their own wits. The story traces Tiny and Mama Dee growing as legends in Venice Beach, California, telling their stories and making it by through art and selling t-shirts, and eventually taking their "po' art" up to San Francisco. It's a story of constantly being evicted, messed with by police, driving from one place to the next trying to find a place to stay, and of all else, never leaving each other behind no matter what. The "art of homelessness" is the only way they can truly get by in an insane world where everything that can go wrong, does.

Garcia helps found POOR magazine, and through the grit of her teeth and really amazing talent, she is able to get POOR magazine afloat. It becomes a project that empowers people to be great organizers and activists in fights for survival, housing, jobs, expression, and dignity. Her mother and many others are at her side the entire time, and it really attests to what one can do when your back is up against the wall. It illustrates plainly how if you are poor in America, you basically have no rights in practice and how you are treated like an animal by society. Tiny doesn't seek to "rise above this," she seeks to rise everyone up and fight for real tangible gains for real people who need them. That's what's really great about this book. You can really tell that the author and people in POOR magazine have ability above nothing else to fight and fight well for what's right.

I probably didn't mention that Tiny is a really gifted writer, too. You can tell by her writing that she's been doing art for a long time. She chooses her words really well and the book reads like stuff that happened decades ago happened minutes before. You really won't be disappointed if you pick this one up. Just awesome.

[Denise MacDonald · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this book one star simply because I didn't like it. I found it very repetitive and somewhat unbelievable in places. For example, Tiny explains that because of her mothers illness she has to book flights daily for several weeks with the hope that they would be able to make one of them. And then they stayed in a hotel in Mexico for a month. All this with only $2000. Is that even possible? Another example is Tiny renting an apartment when she was twelve by telling the landlord she was twenty-six. Again, is that possible? How did they afford the shirts that they hand painted to sell? Where did that money come from?
I don't mean to take away from her experiences, they are hers and she has done great work advocating for others. But I did not like this book. I did research POOR magazine though, and it was great reading about all the programs put in place to help others.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part memoir, part how-to manual for being poor, it shows just how beautifully human and amazing we ALL are, even those that the media and the educational system and the judicial system have taught people with with degrees and jobs (like myself) to mistrust and to disdain. Criminal of Poverty shares the horrors, heartache, and occasional sanity saving humor of life in poverty and one family's journey transcending it. It's a miracle that this book exists. I'd ask high school teachers to consider assigning this to their students.

[Jonnali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa, a person, just like me, grew up without permanent housing, and this is a peace of her story. I am more deeply affected by her story because I met her before I read the book-- she's a part of the fam out in CA. She autographed my book-- "Up wid caring revolutionary service provision!"-Tiny

[ahmad zaid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peck gave us this book before she left to China, a week after she converted, along with a few other books. It’s gonna be a beloved one on my shelf.

I have never experienced true poverty. Why does it seem so awkward to admit this when it is undeniably true?

So this book does two things well. It illustrates in great, personal, vivid detail what it’s like to be poor - in the specific context but also extending to the universal experience.

And as it does this from the perspective of a little girl, her mother and the community around her, the book makes it clear that the rest of us have NO idea what it’s really like. We pretend we do, both those who don’t care and those trying to provide “solutions”, and as long as we don’t admit this truth - that we don’t and will likely never know - then poverty is seen as a crime, and the poor as criminals.

ya Allah, make us among those who love those in poverty as how our Prophet loved them. For who they are, and nothing else.

[Mckochan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, heartbreaking, and inspirational life.

[Mills College Library]

362.5092 G7791 2006

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I am about to say something completely un-PC, insensitive, liberally wrong and disgusting and I am having a crisis of conscious over it (grumble, grumble, sigh). It was their own fault that they were poor and semi-homeless. Typing that almost made my head explode as it goes against every ounce of my bleeding heart liberal soul. I cite the following reasons I came to that conclusion:

1) The author's mother had her Masters of Social Work. She was perfectly able to find work. Last time I checked the need for social has been pretty steady throughout the last 40 years. Even if she couldn’t find a job as a case worker the fact that she had a college degree certainly gave her a leg up for applying for non-case worker positions. However, the sad fact of the matter is that I don’t think she was even trying to get social worker jobs. She claimed she had too much anxiety, depression etc. to find a job. But apparently had none of these emotional/mental issues when basically hustling as a street vendor/performance artist. She had no problem wasting time and financial resources creating performance art and garish clothing to “sell”.
2)The author cites that they were receiving $300.00 a month in child support in the 80’s. Adjusted for inflation that equals approximately $689 per month in 2015 dollars. Now had her mother used her degree to get herself a job that child support should have been enough supplemental income to combine with her own wages to provide a living. Instead it appears the child support was squandered on purchasing materials for their “art” and staying in nice hotels until the money ran out. Additionally they were receiving food stamps to further supplement their finances. I have read so many books, articles, etc. where single mothers with multiple children have ZERO child support, and have to fight to get onto food stamp rolls. Who do work for a living at a job that pays way below the poverty line. Those are the single mothers I feel badly for.
3)Which leads me to this point. This book is literally a trail of tears for horrible, immature, short sighted decisions. The aforementioned spending on art supplies and hotel stays not-withstanding, there are so many fork in the road decisions where the wrong tine is taken time and time again. Not pursuing steady employment, keeping her daughter out of school, which is doubly infuriating since she went to a boutique art school during this time.
4)Making sure no matter where they stayed or what the circumstances the author’s mother always made sure that she had a nice queen sized mattress to sleep on. Never mind that they were shop lifting for food they were so poor.

The other thing about this book that did not sit well with me is the vast amounts of missing information/details that lead me to question the extreme bias of the author and veracity of her stories.

1) She only mentions her father in passing. She doesn’t give any details as to whether he abandoned her or if he had visitation and saw her. It’s very nebulous. It’s clear he paid child support. And there was at least one instance where she called him to ask him for $900 to keep their clothing store/performance art space afloat and he refused to send that amount but agreed to send $100.00 to help her out. I can’t help but wonder if her father hadn’t received numerous calls begging for pretty decent sized chunks of cash that they wished to squander on their ill-conceived ventures.
2) At some point the mother/daughter duo glom onto a man named Miguel who the author claims is a scam artist out to trick women out of their money. However what is detailed is not that scenario at all. He stays with the authors mother for quite some time, financially contributing to the household. He stays with them providing money for rent even after it was decided that “it was best for their relationship that they live separately”. So to put it another way, he moved out but still helped them to pay rent on an apartment he no longer lived at.
3) She alludes to fights and domestic violence in a vague way without actually providing actual details.

One last irritation is petty and grammar related, she constantly sad "I and so-and-so" instead of "So-and-so and I".

Okay now that I got the bad taste out of my mouth, I would like to say the last probably 25% of the book that she details all the advocacy she had done for the poor is impressive and respectable.

If you want to read a real book about people trapped poverty stricken lives I recommend reading, No Shame in my Game, Flat Broke with Children, American Dream, or The Working Poor.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea - a biography/autobiography of a "very low-income" mother/daughter family. I was very torn between the lack of support that they received and their combined stubbornness to acknowledge their own (large) role in their poverty.

For example, clearly health care access in the US is patchy, especially mental health care. It was also clear that the mother was wrestling with some serious inner demons. I'm not really sure that the best way to deal with that situation was to engage in street theater as an occupation. I understand that people have a desire to do what they love, but in general if your art fails to pay the bills then the answer is to do something else rather than complain about being oppressed.

Overall it was a bit of a page-turner, but this sort of thing interests me more than most people I imagine. If anyone else reads it, make sure to take note of all the assistance that the author mentions very rarely. For example, the author claims that her father's child support money was almost nothing, but it later emerges to be (in my opinion) a stingy but clearly livable amount. The same thing happens with the various government assistance monies, grants, etc.

[Katricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand what this book was trying to accomplish, but too many things were left unsaid- the adopted sister, her own desperation to have a child to the point of going to a clinic and lying to her partner on top of her own financial instability. What was meant to be a powerful statement of poverty in America instead came off as a demonization of the 'system' and all the people involved in it, and a glorification/justification of the author's family and narrow view of the world. Overall, a very disappointing read.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a new resident of San Francisco I was searching for this insider narritive from the homeless population. This fulfilled some of that curiosity, although not all. Tiny's honest insightful description of her life is extraordinary for a number of reasons. She succeded against all the odds, and harbors little bitterness. A great introduction to the issues, causes, and challanges of homelessness. But as she would be the first to point out- each story is very different.

[Anna Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate her compelling story and her conviction, but Lisa Gray-Garcia lets her passion get in the way of the facts, and thereby limits her effectiveness as a writer. If she would aim for a little more intellectual integrity and avoid drawing the same types of sweeping generalizations that she resents when drawn of poor people, she would have a much better book.

[G.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up at City Lights bookstore. It really drew me in, the subject is fascinating...but about halfway through I got the strong feeling that there was a lot that was being left out. That the story was incomplete.
But for the most part it was enjoyable.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book by a woman actually or effectively homeless since 4 and increasingly responsible for the care of her disabled mother, necessitating her to end her schooling at 11. Tiny's intelligence, incredible creativity, determination and fundamental humanity are so inspiring.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just bought this book while in SF. She is an excellent writer. I want to finish this book ASAP. It is a great and sad story of how someone who has it all can lose it so suddenly. It also reminds me a little of my current relationship with my mother.

[James Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone prone to easy generalizations on homelessness and poverty/

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was amazed how well the author wrote given her limited education. I also thought her dedication to her mother was very moving. I felt that the book at times rambled.

[Susan Schweik · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Tiny"'s memoir has a huge impact.

[Violet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Tiny and Dee and their struggle through being homeless and living in poverty.

[Ycazares cazares · Rating 4 out of 5]

great book from one of our own bay-area writer and activists.

[Lakshmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

On my absolutely must read shelf.

[Trish McCourt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into the extreme challenges of getting out of poverty, illustrating how the deeper into poverty you are the harder it is to get out.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy read, but an important one. All good lefties have read "Nickel and Dimed," but more should probably read "Criminal of Poverty."

[Mikilah Terae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Was glad to learn to understand the experience of humans in poverty from humans in poverty.

[Carrie]

memoir,sociology

[Jaclyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

really intense and highly educational