Help Mr. Sam Get Home
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Help Mr. Sam get home!
Sam Foster is 85 years old and has been in a Philadelphia homeless shelter for eight years, and now he can finally go home and be reunited with his family. Staff at RHD Fernwood, the homeless shelter where Mr. Foster has been living, have tracked down his only family — a son living in London. After months of work to get a passport, birth certificate, and travel visa, the British Government rejected his first visa application and is insisting on a “Visa for the Elderly” in order for him to travel. While it is perfectly within the government’s right to insist on this visa, the total cost in procuring and processing this paperwork will be around $15,000 — which Mr. Foster, the oldest person living in Philadelphia’s shelter system, does not have. His family doesn’t have the means to help him.
After 30 years estranged from his family, Mr. Foster, known affectionately at the shelter as “Mr. Sam,” can finally see his journey of homelessness and dedication to finding his family come to an end. RHD, the human services nonprofit that operates the Fernwood homeless shelter, is raising the money to get this visa and get him on a plane to be reunited with his family.
“To look them in their faces and to see what kind of men they have become after these past 30 some years, then I can die a happy man,” Mr. Sam said.
Mr. Sam was born in Jamaica in 1931, when it was still a British colony. He left Jamaica before the Caribbean nation achieved independence; Jamaica now issues its own passports, which Mr. Sam does not have. He was denied a British passport. When he turned up at RHD Fernwood, a shelter for homeless men in Philadelphia, he was a citizen of nowhere.
RHD Fernwood provides emergency housing for single men in Philadelphia referred by Philadelphia’s Office of Supportive Housing. Sheena High, case management supervisor at Fernwood, has been working for years on finding Mr. Sam’s family and negotiating the maze of bureaucracy involved in getting Mr. Sam a passport, establishing his nationality and obtaining his visa.
“I am a believer that family is key in support, whether it’s the one we are born with or the ones we create,” High said. “If we all have the opportunity to reconnect to it, after whatever amount of time and after whatever reason that separated us, we should do it while we’re alive. This is Mr. Sam’s last chance.
“Mr. Sam is a fighter — and on some days as he says that I am his sparring partner. Our goal for all the men we support is to reconnect them to their families, because they can become so isolated even within the shelter system structure and have minimal supports in place. They deserve to be included back into the family to be restored.”
As Mr. Sam has aged, he’s had numerous health problems — which is why he feels the reconnection with his sons is so important. As the time approaches for Mr. Sam to go home, he is becoming more and more anxious to see his family.
“RHD is helping me to get home,” Mr. Sam said. “I am grateful for that.”
Sam Foster is 85 years old and has been in a Philadelphia homeless shelter for eight years, and now he can finally go home and be reunited with his family. Staff at RHD Fernwood, the homeless shelter where Mr. Foster has been living, have tracked down his only family — a son living in London. After months of work to get a passport, birth certificate, and travel visa, the British Government rejected his first visa application and is insisting on a “Visa for the Elderly” in order for him to travel. While it is perfectly within the government’s right to insist on this visa, the total cost in procuring and processing this paperwork will be around $15,000 — which Mr. Foster, the oldest person living in Philadelphia’s shelter system, does not have. His family doesn’t have the means to help him.
After 30 years estranged from his family, Mr. Foster, known affectionately at the shelter as “Mr. Sam,” can finally see his journey of homelessness and dedication to finding his family come to an end. RHD, the human services nonprofit that operates the Fernwood homeless shelter, is raising the money to get this visa and get him on a plane to be reunited with his family.
“To look them in their faces and to see what kind of men they have become after these past 30 some years, then I can die a happy man,” Mr. Sam said.
Mr. Sam was born in Jamaica in 1931, when it was still a British colony. He left Jamaica before the Caribbean nation achieved independence; Jamaica now issues its own passports, which Mr. Sam does not have. He was denied a British passport. When he turned up at RHD Fernwood, a shelter for homeless men in Philadelphia, he was a citizen of nowhere.
RHD Fernwood provides emergency housing for single men in Philadelphia referred by Philadelphia’s Office of Supportive Housing. Sheena High, case management supervisor at Fernwood, has been working for years on finding Mr. Sam’s family and negotiating the maze of bureaucracy involved in getting Mr. Sam a passport, establishing his nationality and obtaining his visa.
“I am a believer that family is key in support, whether it’s the one we are born with or the ones we create,” High said. “If we all have the opportunity to reconnect to it, after whatever amount of time and after whatever reason that separated us, we should do it while we’re alive. This is Mr. Sam’s last chance.
“Mr. Sam is a fighter — and on some days as he says that I am his sparring partner. Our goal for all the men we support is to reconnect them to their families, because they can become so isolated even within the shelter system structure and have minimal supports in place. They deserve to be included back into the family to be restored.”
As Mr. Sam has aged, he’s had numerous health problems — which is why he feels the reconnection with his sons is so important. As the time approaches for Mr. Sam to go home, he is becoming more and more anxious to see his family.
“RHD is helping me to get home,” Mr. Sam said. “I am grateful for that.”
Organizer and beneficiary
Julius Jackson
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA
Julius Jackson
Beneficiary
