{"id":17225,"date":"2013-04-03T08:37:57","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T12:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=17225"},"modified":"2013-04-03T08:37:57","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T12:37:57","slug":"woman-fired-for-being-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2013\/04\/woman-fired-for-being-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman Fired For Being Homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eunice<\/a>
Eunice Jasica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KFC manager’s version changes<\/span><\/h2>\n
Written by\u00a0Emily Le Coz<\/a><\/h6>\n

A Tupelo woman hired earlier this month by a KFC was fired Monday after the franchise owner discovered she\u2019s homeless.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eunice Jasica has been staying at the Salvation Army lodge since early December after losing her job, her car and her home.<\/span><\/p>\n

The nonprofit organization requires its residents to seek employment daily and, upon finding it, to pay for lodging and start saving for a place of their own. Jasica said she had been job hunting for months and was relieved to find work on March 11 at the KFC on North Gloster Street.<\/span><\/p>\n

A document signed by that location\u2019s general manager on March 12 confirms Jasica had been hired to perform \u201cprep work\u201d and would receive a paycheck every two weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

But when Jasica reported for duty Monday, franchise owner Chesley Ruff withdrew the job offer upon learning she lived at the Salvation Army.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me to come back when I had an address and transportation,\u201d Jasica recalled. \u201cBut how am I supposed to get all that without a job?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruff signed a letter the same day stating he couldn\u2019t employ her \u201cdue to concerns of lack of residence and transportation\u201d and that she could reapply when her circumstances change.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Thursday, though, Ruff said he\u2019d only used the homeless excuse to protect Jasica from the real reason he declined her services: She has no prior food-prep experience and seemed too elderly to lift the 40-pound boxes involved in kitchen work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jasica is 59 years old and had worked 27 years as a bus driver and also did security for Bloomingdale\u2019s. She attends classes at Itawamba Community College when she\u2019s not job hunting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to spare her feelings, I guess,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s right or wrong, but I know it was stupid.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

KFC operates more than 5,200 restaurants nationwide and follows all applicable employment laws, but its independent franchisees make their own hiring decisions, said KFC Corp. spokesman Rick Maynard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mississippi is an at-will employment state. That means the employer or employee can terminate the relationship at any time for any reason as long as it doesn\u2019t violate anti-discrimination statutes based on factors like race, age, color, religion, sex, national origin or disability.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the law, Ruff had the right to terminate Jasica\u2019s employment based on her lack of a permanent residence but not, for example, because of her age.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruff said he never terminated Jasica, though, because she hadn\u2019t yet been hired. The document signed by the store\u2019s general manager says otherwise. The general manager would not comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although he refused to employ Jasica, Ruff has hired homeless people in the past. Among them was Scott Kohlman, a felon who came to Tupelo after his release from prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kohlman, who was homeless, had worked at Ruff\u2019s KFC for several months and even became a manager, according to Salvation Army Maj. Sue Dorman. His story also had appeared in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kohlman did not return a call for comment Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOver the 20 or so years I\u2019ve been in Tupelo doing business,\u201d Ruff said, \u201cI have helped people before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why his refusal to employ Jasica shocked Dorman. She said she called Ruff after seeing his letter Monday and was told simply that it\u2019s company policy not to employ people lacking stable housing or transportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruff never mentioned concerns about Jasica\u2019s ability to lift heavy boxes or her lack of food-prep work, Dorman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was ticked,\u201d Dorman said. \u201cShe\u2019s one of those that\u2019s really trying hard. She doesn\u2019t want a hand-out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This week\u2019s incident is a first for the Salvation Army in Tupelo and for similar agencies operating throughout Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, said the organization\u2019s three-state divisional spokesman Mark Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones called the situation \u201cdisheartening.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KFC manager’s version changes Written by\u00a0Emily Le Coz A Tupelo woman hired earlier this month by a KFC was fired Monday after the franchise owner..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,152,181,97],"tags":[347],"class_list":["post-17225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discrimination","category-economy","category-labor","category-us-news","tag-workers-struggle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bilde.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}