again, my name is linda barnes. sorry. sorry. my name is linda barnes. i am a washingtonian, born and raised here in washington, d.c. i now live in alexandria, virginia. my stint of homelessness was in the 1980s. i was an abused and battered wife and i had four years and it took me 10 years first of all to leave to get up enough nerve to leave my husband. but i finally did. and when i did leave, i found that i was homeless with four children. being on the street for a while with me children, i would say it's not me. and i would go back home and the cycle would start again, the beatings. so in order to keep a roof over my head at that time and for my children to have a roof over their heads i would stay and endure the beatings. another couple years went by and i decided i can't do this any longer, you know, i'm not just hurting myself, i'm hurting my children as well. so one night, when my husband went to work, i packed up and i left again, with my four children. to make a long story short, it took a while. we stayed with family. we stayed in union statio

. >> again, my name is linda barnes, sorry, my name is linda barnes, and i am a washingtonian born and raised here in washington, d.c.. i now live in alexandria va my sense of homelessness came back in the 80's. my husband and i worked together, i was an abused and battered wife for years, it took me ten years first of all to leave to get up and a fleur-de-lis comer to leave my husband, but i finally did and when i did leave i found that i was homeless with four children. i said this isn't for me. i would go back, and the cycle would start again would start the beatings so to keep a roof over my head at that time and for my children to have a roof over their heads i would stay and endure the beatings. another couple of years went by. i decided i can't do this any longer. you know, i'm not just hurting myself, i am hurting my children as well, so one night when my husband went to work i packed up and i left again with my four children. to make a long story short, it took awhile. we stayed with family, we stayed in union station, we stayed quite a few places. back in the 80's it wasn't e