Homeless Mom of 5 Loses Kids to Social Services as America’s Attack On the Poor Worsens

Moshimalee Johnson

Reported by Nigel Boys

Thirty-two-year old mother of five, Moshimalee Johnson, who is an unemployed and homeless certified nursing assistant, turned to the Internet in desperate search for someone to help her family after the Department of Social Services (DSS) turned her down.

Johnson called the Durham, North Carolina DSS in hopes that they could find somewhere for she and her children, ages 6, 7, 9 and twins aged 2, to live. However, after the DSS refused to help, she turned to Urban Ministries for their support, but they wouldn’t allow her to work if they took her in, according to the News & Observer.

With nowhere else to turn, the former healthcare worker turned in desperation to Craigslist for help in solving her problems. She placed an ad in the apartments wanted section that said she was homeless and looking for someone to take her five kids until she could find work and a place to live.

After the ad had been placed, someone must have misunderstood her plea, according to Johnson, because the reader interpreted the ad to mean that Johnson wanted to give up her kids and not find a place for them all to live together. She adds that her children were promptly taken away from her and placed in foster care by the state.

Michael Becketts, Social Services Director for Durham County, would not confirm that the Craigslist posting had anything to do with Johnson’s children being taken away. He added that they didn’t see the posting and knew nothing about it, but people were assuming that they had seen it.

Although Johnson was formerly employed as a health care worker, she lost her job because she could not make it to work on time via the bus after her minivan broke down in 2013. She adds that the situation just got worse when she was evicted from her apartment and had to move in with her mother.

Recently in the news, there was a story about a woman who abandoned her baby at a Manhattan subway station. Although the mother claims that she felt she couldn’t turn to anyone for help, some believe that she should have relied on the state to aid her.

However, it appears that when desperate young women turn to the DSS for help, their response is to take away their children, so where else can they turn?

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