Is it someone sleeping in a park, in a box filled with newspapers for warmth? Or perhaps an elderly drunk man under the culvert of a bridge, trying to avoid a torrential downpour or freezing weather?

Or maybe someone rummaging through the dumpster behind a restaurant looking for something to eat?

Or could it be that person standing on a corner with a catchy sign trying to tap the generosity of a stranger? You know, the one you've seen once or twice that says something like, "Okay, I'll admit it. I need money for beer."

What if I told you that there are "invisible" homeless people out there. The homeless are not just epitomized by the individuals I have profiled above; they are also in the blue and white collar world of hard working people.

You may work with one of the invisibly homeless in your office, and your kids may go to school with them. There's a good chance, though, that if you do know members of this exponentially growing community they may be so embarrassed and humiliated about their plight that they will do everything in their power not to let you know what they're experiencing.

Joy Junction Volunteer Coordinator Jonathan Matheny (who until recently was one of the "new and invisible " homeless), recalled a family from out of town he met while working the Joy Junction booth at the recent state fair. He said they had played society's all-too-acceptable game of keeping up with the Jones's (also known as buying everything you want and paying for it later), and lost.

Matheny added, "They had leveraged themselves so far, that even though they both had lucrative jobs, their credit was destroyed. When they lost their house, they could not rent even a small apartment for their family. They decided to try the extended hotel life 'temporarily' in an attempt to get back on their feet again."

Matheny said at the time of his conversation, the family had been living in the same hotel for 18 months. The man was still employed at the same place, and had even received a recent promotion. Yet, due to those credit issues, and the cost of an extended stay room, they had been unable to save enough money to move into a "home."

Matheny pondered reflectively, "I find it extremely disturbing that society looks with disdain on the same people who are responding to the pressures it created. We are a society of instant gratification. Swipe the card and have everything you want; don't worry, no payments until 2010 or later."

With a furrowed brow he added, "Society created this horrible monster called credit, but never taught people its dangers."

Increase in Homeless Children

An ever-increasing number of those new and invisible homeless people are children. Matheny reflected on the Albuquerque Public School System, which through its Title 1 Homeless Project last year registered 5,000 children in need of help (www.koat.com/news/21152719/detail.html). That assistance provides tutoring, school supplies and other essential items to children.

Matheny said some important and disturbing figures came to light from a local television news report on this issue. Throughout the first month of the school year, APS was enrolling 175-250 students a week in the program. That puts them on target to far exceed last year's number.

When confronted with these figures, many people ask with more than a trace of doubt, "Are there really that many kids in Albuquerque whose families are homeless?" After all, that number is more than the latest count for all the homeless people in Albuquerque.

What has perhaps confused some people about the APS figures (due to the district's ability to access those who might not otherwise be available to answer a survey), was the inclusion of more than just those individuals living in shelters like Joy Junction, behind a restaurant, or under a bridge.

Presumably as a result of requests for help from their children, APS was able to count gainfully employed people paying weekly rent to a place with cable, a coffee pot, a bed and clean sheets.

APS also included those individuals who have no home and rely on the generosity of relatives.

Matheny said he knows from first hand experience how difficult that can be for a family.

He said, "There are many families out there that due to the difficulties of living with relatives, have actually chosen to stay on the streets. They find it safer mentally and emotionally, than having to deal with the constant pressure and bombardment relatives can deliver."

Matheny, a California native, left the state when he was unable to get his lease renewed.

Invisibly Homeless

Matheny and his growing family, though, were coming to stay with relatives in Albuquerque. He said, "Local family groups decided to try the tough love approach with me, in the hopes that I would go back to the same sort of corporate career that gave me serious health issues."

However, Albuquerque was not an easy ride for Matheny. He said his in laws believed he was a slacker, and one family member wanted to know why he had given up such high-powered and high-paying positions to become a "bum."

Finally, the situation became too stressful, and Matheny and his family moved out to their own place-sort of.

He said that a friend offered to rent him a house for $800 a month, with the first two months being free in return for fixing the damage caused by other tenants. But the stress of constant uncertainty and more was taking its toll on Matheny, and he turned to alcohol.

As he recalled, "The third month we couldn't afford the rent, because by that time, I had started my long slide down the neck of a vodka bottle."

Matheny said it was time for another phone call, and another friend.

However, using the classic definition of homelessness, Matheny said, his family had never been homeless.

"We never lived on the streets or had to scramble for food," he said.

The last "home" they actually had was in San Ramon, CA, and that was in the beginning of 2002. After that, they lived in extended stay hotels, and with friends and family.

He said, "When we were brought to Joy Junction's doorstep, we had reached the end of our resources, and the motel where we were staying (and had lived for two years) told us they could not give us any leeway. Not even for my wife, who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. We found ourselves at Joy Junction."

Matheny said he believes society needs to shift, in his opinion, its narrow definition of who actually is a homeless person.

He said, "The gentleman in the three-piece suit going into his high rise office could have very well put on that suit in an extended stay hotel, where he was living, and not just there on business. I used to."

Matheny commented, "Homeless is NOT just under a bridge or behind a restaurant. There are literally hundreds of thousands-maybe millions- of 'invisible' homeless people. There are also hundreds of thousands, and maybe more, of kids out there whom you would never dream are homeless. The tragedy is - they are!"

And as APS Title 1 Homeless Project's Helen Fox told a local television news reporter recently, "If we want to see homeless end, it behooves us to educate the children."