We’re willing to be there at midnight to pick a woman up from prison, to bring her to a home, because we understand. We meet women where they are-if they’re in front of the Greyhound bus station, if they’re downtown, if they’re at the hospital. They go in homeless, and they come out homeless. A lot of times, women coming out of jail don’t have a place to go. And you’re just out there walking the streets. Below is an edited version of the conversation.ĬNN: Why is it so difficult for women facing homelessness to break the cycle?Ĭarter: What options does a woman with nothing have to start over? You have no money. Since 2002, more than 800 women – many who are formerly incarcerated – have benefited from Carter’s program.ĬNN spoke to Carter about her work. And I know there’s something we can do to help them.” We pretend that we don’t see them,” Carter said. “Homeless women and children – I call them invisible people. The group provides housing, counseling and job training, as well as services to help women reunite with their children. Today, Carter and her nonprofit, the Time for Change Foundation, help homeless women reclaim their lives. “I had a lot of sleepless nights – I felt like God was telling me: ‘I didn’t bring you through all of this for nothing,’ ” she said. While in prison in 1993, she was accepted into a rehabilitation program that started her on a path to overhaul her life and get clean. Then one day she had a revelation: It was time to change. “I didn’t know then when I took that first hit that I was going to lose the next 12 years of my life,” she said.Ĭarter cycled in and out of prison, prostitution and homelessness. It wasn’t long before the life Carter witnessed became her own. “People shooting heroin – we’d be playing as kids, and there would be needles on the ground,” Carter said.
Kim Carter never had a chance to be a child.Īt a very young age, she was exposed to heavy drugs, violence and criminal activity.
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