Mohammed “Mo” Soumah came to the U.S. 14 years ago. “It’s hard for me to find a permanent job right now. I’m a permanent resident, but I lost my green card.” A replacement card costs $450. “So I’m working at things, just trying to collect money here and there. I’m legal, but any job you go to, they want to see your card.”
Originally from the Ivory Coast, Mo is the sole support for his family. His wife, a Native American from Minnesota, suffers from depression and stays home with their kids, one 5, the other 11. “It’s rough to be the only person working unless you got a big degree. It doesn’t pay much. Your life is going to be just a circle and circle.”
Mo works landscaping and construction, often through the Millionairs Club. “Any legal job, I take it.” He’s also worked at CenturyLink Field and at a garbage company in Bellevue. He and his family have moved back and forth between Seattle and the Midwest as he’s looked for decent work.
Right now, he sells Real Change in Ballard. “Trader Joe’s closes at 10 p.m. QFC is open 24 hours. Sometimes I’m there until
1 a.m. selling papers. Even when I’m walking I’m still selling. When I’m on my bus I’m still selling. It’s a great opportunity unless you’re lazy. So friendly, some people, they always put a smile on your face. People even offer you food, or the grocery gives it to you. Sometimes people ask me, ‘Hey, what do you do?’ I say, ‘Landscaping,’ they say, ‘OK, come cut the grass or [care for] the plants.’”
For a while, Mo and his family were in a shelter in Shelton, Wash. He tried to sell Real Change there. “They told me I would have to talk to the city [to sell on the street].” So he commuted to Olympia to sell the paper, but decided that the bus fare — Shelton to Seattle to get the papers, Seattle to Olympia to sell them, and then back to Shelton — wasn’t worth it.
The family moved back to Seattle. They stayed in a tent in Nickelsville for a few weeks. “It was cold out, and when it rained they got a lot of flooding.” Luckily, they found transitional housing through the YWCA.
There’s not much time for leisure in Mo’s life. “Sometimes the kids like to go to a carnival. Usually we go to the park, because I got them a bike. Kids get stressed out. You got to take them out so they can get that stress out.”
Mo gets stressed out, too. “Sometime I cannot even sleep because I’m thinking, thinking, my brain racing. It’s very rough.”
Mo’s not about to give up, though. “Coming from Africa, we come to make it, not just be here. If you got a family, you just got to try very hard, because it is not easy to make it in life. One day, it will change.”