Single and raising a child - this has been Jeremie Benoit’s life for the past four years. However, because of his gender, Benoit doesn’t always get the assistance he desperately needs.
“There isn’t much help out there for single fathers,” said Benoit. “A lot of programs out there will only help single mothers and their children. If I was a woman I would have had everything I needed, but because I’m a single father, I have to take care of everything on my own.”
He said this referring to the W.I.C. program, which stands for Women, Infants, and Children. The program does not assist men.
“I would go there (W.I.C.) and they would help my son, but they wouldn’t give me any assistance,” he said.
Benoit has been raising his seven-year-old son Adam for the last four years after Benoit and his wife split. She then moved to Poplar, Wis., and takes Adam during school. Benoit has custody over Adam the rest of the time.
Benoit was left with a large mortgage and rising debt, which became too much for him to handle on his own. He ended up losing his home to foreclosure in May 2011, leaving him and Adam homeless.
During that time, Benoit struggled to make ends meet. He was bouncing around from one minimum wage job to the next. During this time, he did everything he could to make sure Adam got what he needed and was happy.
“One thing that I tell people is that as long as my kid eats, I’m OK,” he said. “I would go a few days without food, but my son would be fed.”
During this time Benoit was working multiple jobs. He split time between working at Taco John’s and a BP gas station.
“I would go to work at night, come home, change clothes, get a couple hours of sleep and then go back to work,” he said.
While working these jobs, he didn’t have transportation. He was forced to walk to and from work in the cold Duluth winters.
Those issues aside, he said one of the biggest struggles he faced was keeping at least one stable element in Adam’s life. He said he knew stability in his son’s life was something Adam needed and it wasn’t something Benoit was able to offer consistently.
However, when Benoit would ask for assistance, most people assumed Adam’s mother would care for him. Luckily, he was able to keep Adam at a daycare center where he had stability for at least a few hours a day.
“Most people don’t really think of these things until you’re in that situation,” Benoit said. “There was a lot of now what moments. It’s hard to be told you’re not doing enough, when you’re already doing as much as you can.”
Benoit finally qualified for Section Eight housing in February 2013, a program that would offer him somewhere to live for 30 percent of his income. He was able to find a home in central Duluth, where he currently resides.
Initially, Section Eight sounded like a fair deal, but what Benoit didn’t expect was that Section Eight only looked at his gross income rather than his net income, which is the amount of money he has left after paying for his other expenses. Due to those circumstances he was having almost 60 percent of his income taken away from him for housing.
It wasn’t until October 2013 that things started to turn around for Benoit. He was offered a job at SISU Medical Solutions where he works system support.
“It’s the job I’ve always wanted,” he said. “It’s my passion. I love it.”
Now situated only five blocks from his home, he no longer has to be concerned with walking on cold winter nights.
After clawing his way from the bottom, he was finally able to create a more stable living situation for Adam and himself. Through all of the adversity he had faced over four years, he only spent three months unemployed.
“I’ve always strived for more than the bottom,” he said.
Recently, Benoit has been working with Rena Moran, a local representative, in order to get single fathers the assistance they need. He said there are many others out there who are in a similar situation, struggling to raise their children without help from the state.
“There’re a lot of single fathers stepping up to the plate and helping their kids,” said Benoit. “But the system’s not ready for that. We need to get the system up to par so single fathers get the help they need. We love our kids and it’s hard to be there for them when we have to work multiple jobs to support them.”
Even with the amount of adversity he has faced over the last four years, Benoit said he has a huge desire to go back to school. He was attending classes at Lake Superior College before he had to drop out to care for Adam. Now that stability is returning to his life, he said he wants to attend either UMD or St. Scholastica to obtain his bachelor’s in programming, then go on to get his master’s in business management.