A California homeless woman has shocked a neighborhood by panhandling with her newborn baby. The tiny child spends its days sitting on the street with her mother.
A homeless woman in San Francisco has sparked a raging controversy.
Megan Doudney, 34, panhandles along a busy street. The blue-dreadlocked woman would barely stand out from the crowd if it weren’t for the fact that she’s usually clutching a child. Doudney begs for money with her six-week-old daughter in her arm, using the newborn baby as a prop to gain sympathy.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
“Doudney and her baby have a private room at Hamilton Family Shelter, where they sleep every night and have access to three meals a day and parenting classes. The room is hers for three to six months, and she’s working with a case manager to figure out what comes next. Doudney receives $900 a month in Social Security benefits, and Hamilton sets aside 75 percent of that to save for her future. Doudney said she needs more than the remaining $225 a month to afford diapers, formula, clothes and other necessities — and that she must panhandle every day to get it.”
San Francisco offers residents an extremely generous social benefits package. Doudney could receive childcare vouchers if she desired, or the city would be willing to take the baby off of her hands entirely. She can’t afford to feed and clothe her daughter, and she has no intention of getting a job. The child will have a tough life ahead of her if she remains with a homeless mother.
San Francisco has a severe homeless problem. The city lacks affordable housing yet is attractive to migrants because of its generous social programs and mild weather.
“They’d have a fight on their hands — a serious, serious fight,” Doudney told the Chronicle. “I love her. I wanted my entire life to be a mommy. Even when I was a little kid in school, they’d say, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I always said, ‘A mommy.’”
Doudney claims that she isn’t harming her daughter. Yet it’s obvious that she is. She’s keeping a frail, tiny baby outside on the streets all day while she encounters hundreds, perhaps thousands of people. The baby’s immune system isn’t strong enough to protect her from so many strangers.
“They called 911 because they said the baby was discolored,” Doudney said. “They said she looked like she was unconscious. Of course she looks like she’s unconscious – she’s a sleeping baby! It was just crazy.”
Babies shouldn’t be punished for their parents’ mistakes. An innocent child shouldn’t spend its first months of life living on the streets. Almost every day someone calls the police on Doudney and her child. Officials, however, are reluctant to get involved. The baby doesn’t exhibit obvious signs of abuse yet, and the law makes it extremely hard for authorities to remove a child from its mother.
Pregnant women and mothers are controversial members of the homeless community. Some say that the women abuse the public’s generosity, while others maintain that all homeless people are victims.
“We have just felt a lot of empathy for Megan,” Rachel Kenemore, development and communications manager at Hamilton, said. “It’s hard to see folks throwing blame instead of looking at this from a compassionate viewpoint of ‘What can we do to ensure this isn’t happening?’”
People do have compassion, that’s why they’re concerned about the baby’s fate. Doudney needs compassion and help herself, but the attention that society should devote to her is significantly less than what it should devote to a six-week-old baby. Babies are utterly helpless.
Megan Doudney cares for two small dogs in addition to her six-week-old baby. Doudney has been homeless for years.
“A lot of people assume I can’t take care of the baby,” Doudney said. “These people want to take her from me. In what way, shape or form am I abusing my child?”
One resident was so disgusted by Doudney’s actions that she staged a protest.
“Most people think about this poor woman, but they don’t think about the child,” Deidre Laiken, a 70-year-old former teacher from North Beach, told investigators. “One of the definitions of child abuse is using a child for exploitation or financial gain. This woman is making a lot of money.”
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