After fire destroys home, Tampa low wage worker/activist and family face homelessness

For about a year now, Carlton Alexander and his family have been staying in a Tampa home that belonged to his late uncle, a house Alexander had been rehabbing over the year between his shifts at a Taco Bell franchise. 

Alexander, 29, moved to the area from Georgia, and was gradually getting the house into decent shape.

On Monday morning, a shoddy window air conditioning unit changed that.

“It blew up," he said. "It was about two feet away from me.”

The explosion set off a small fire that eventually engulfed his home in flames.

“I slipped and fell and bumped my head trying to put the fire out," he said. "I got out in the nick of time.”

Luckily, everyone — himself, his 35-year-old fiancee, her 19-year-old daughter and her daughter's 3-year-old daughter — was safe.

But the house was totaled.

Alexander, who has been supporting his family with no government assistance, said he makes $8.05 an hour, the state minimum wage, at his job, and he doesn't get enough hours to constitute a full work week.

“I try to get 40, but they give me sporadic [hours], 25, 27, 30...sometimes less than that," he said. “I don't have any assistance or anything like that, as far as food stamps, public housing. I don't have any of that.”

Such meager earnings make it impossible to put away savings in case of an emergency like this. It's not like he can put down first and last month's rent as well as a deposit.

The Red Cross has put him and his family up in a hotel, which he said he appreciates, they're only covering his room until Friday.

“If the money ran out, the way things are going for me, I'd be homeless," he said. "I would be homeless. I would have nowhere to go at all. So I'm trying my best to do what I can.”

That's why activists with the Fight for $15 movement are trying to help out. They've set up a crowdfunding campaign to keep Alexander and his family from the streets.

Alexander has been active with that movement, a union-backed effort that's pushing for a $15 minimum wage for all.

To the activists, his situation is illustrates the need for all workers — fast food, childcare, adjunct university instructors, everyone — to have fairer working conditions, namely a minimum wage. 

Because regardless of one's income level, anything can happen.

Alexander said he appreciates any support the public can offer.

“There's no small amount," he said. "We're accepting all help from the community. Thank you and God bless everybody.”

Find the fundraising page here.