Teenager says "I AM...Homeless" without shame

I AM...Homeless
"I Am ...," appearing every other Monday, explores the life experiences of teenagers and young adults in their own words.
July 14, 2008
Winter Lynn Kornfield, 13, left, and her sister, Gaia, live with their mother at Beth-El Center, a homeless shelter in Milford. She is on the honor roll at Harborside Middle School, where she will be a seventh-grader in the fall. In June, she received one pin for keeping up honor-level grades, and a second, awarded by her peers, for respect. She dreams of going to Yale.

I was raised in New Jersey, Jackson, and lived there my whole life until I moved here when I was 11. A lot of bad things happened, but I'm learning how to put the past in my mind as a memory.

DYFS — they're like DCF here — tried taking us away from our mom when I was 9. They didn't succeed, but when I was 11, they took us away for nine days.

They brought us to a weird foster home and the adults told us we'd never see our mom again.
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