Liz Murray's parents partied too much in the '70s and got hooked on drugs. After Liz was born in 1980, their addictions continued and she was raised in a Bronx tenement where the daily trade-off was drugs or food, paid for with the monthly welfare check.
"My sister and I would wait on the sidewalk while my parents went into some building to score a bag," Murray said Thursday in an emotional but inspirational speech at the annual conference of the Washington State Coalition for the Homeless at the Yakima Convention Center.
The girls used to knock on the neighbors' apartments for food, gauging which would taste the best by the cooking smells.
By the age of 15, Murray was living on the streets, sleeping in subway cars, stealing and skipping school. But after watching her mother's coffin lowered into a pauper's grave -- Jean Murray died of AIDS -- Murray had an epiphany. She returned to an alternative high school while continuing to couch surf or fall asleep to the rocking motion of the B train from the Bronx.
A teacher mentored her by "acknowledging my humanity" and she graduated with good grades, winning a scholarship from The New York Times and attending Harvard University at the age of 20.
Murray's life story, which was the subject of a drama on Lifetime television, inspired the crowd of 500 homeless advocates at a time when the problem of homelessness threatens to depress even the optimists.
While the Legislature has appropriated more than $50 million in the last two years on solutions to the problem, the state's homeless rate increased 1 percent last year. Experts at the conference blame a lack of affordable housing, the cost to build housing and an economic squeeze on the working poor and the middle class.
"We haven't quite figured out how to solve the problem," said Rep. Mark Miloscia, D-Federal Way, chairman of the Housing Committee in the House.
In fact, Miloscia sees the problem worsening as real wages decline and housing prices inflate.
"In five years, we're going to get swamped and I don't know what to do about it," he said during a presentation on implementation of the state's 2005 Homeless Housing and Assistance Act.
But sometimes government doesn't help. Murray made a point of saying that the social welfare system failed her. Caseworkers told her that her family lived like pigs. A teacher excused her poor grades and absenteeism, saying she was a victim of circumstances.
Murray's youthful resilience obviously helped her overcome her disadvantages, but she said she could have easily fallen into the cycle of crime and homelessness that characterizes so much of the street population.
In addition to their addictions, Murray's parents had other problems. Her mother was schizophrenic and legally blind while her father had obsessive compulsive disorder. But she said she always knew they loved her. Murray described her father as "Kramer on meth," referring to the Seinfeld character, but she credits him with giving her a love of reading.
Murray left Harvard after a year and a half to return to New York to be with her father, who had been diagnosed with AIDS. He died two years ago.
Now 28, Murray said she will finish her degree but has found happiness in being a motivational speaker. And success. The crowd gave her a long, standing ovation.
* Leah Beth Ward: 577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.
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