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A Florida police detective gave a helping hand to a homeless Black woman who recently gave birth to her first child. Tysha Griffin told WPEC she was sleeping on park benches, sidewalks, and at bus stations while she carried her son.
“Sleeping on pavement, you know, in and out of homes. Kicked out with nothing. Basically, nobody to turn to. It was hard," the new mom told reporters. She was also working a full-time job as a cashier during the whole ordeal. Before giving birth to her son I-Keem, who's now 3 weeks old, she worried about how she'll be able to support him.
"I didn't want DCF to take him or anything," Griffin said. "I wanted to be a parent at the end of the day."
That all changed when she met Riviera Beach Police Detective Jennifer Jones, who also happens to lead the department's Homeless Outreach Initiative.
"She told me that she was pregnant, I mean that just me being a mother myself, I can't imagine being homeless, let alone homeless and pregnant,” Jones said. "A lot of people think homelessness and they think that the people just don't want to work that person just doesn't want to work or whatever. It's not that's not the case all the time."
RBPD's Homeless Outreach Initiative not only clears out homeless camps but also partners with non-profits and organizations to get them into temporary housing. Over the last few months, officials said they reduced the number of homeless people from 145 to less than 115.
Now, Griffin and her family have temporary housing while they look for something permanent with Adopt a Family, a non-profit.
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