Woman fired for being homeless
Written by Emily Le Coz
A Tupelo woman hired earlier this month by a KFC was fired Monday after the franchise owner discovered she’s homeless.
Eunice Jasica has been staying at the Salvation Army lodge since early December after losing her job, her car and her home.
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.
A document signed by that location’s general manager on March 12 confirms Jasica had been hired to perform “prep work” and would receive a paycheck every two weeks.
But when Jasica reported for duty Monday, franchise owner Chesley Ruff withdrew the job offer upon learning she lived at the Salvation Army.
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On Thursday, though, Ruff said he’d 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.
Jasica is 59 years old and had worked 27 years as a bus driver and also did security for Bloomingdale’s. She attends classes at Itawamba Community College when she’s not job hunting.
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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’t violate anti-discrimination statutes based on factors like race, age, color, religion, sex, national origin or disability.
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Ruff said he never terminated Jasica, though, because she hadn’t yet been hired. The document signed by the store’s general manager says otherwise. The general manager would not comment.
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.
full: http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130322/NEWS01/303220029/Woman-fired-being-homeless
found via http://www.blackenterprise.com/small-business/woman-kfc-fired-homeless/
= new reply since forum marked as read
She's homeless because she doesn't have a job, but she can't get a job because she's homeless.
Tell me more about that so-called "American Dream" 
My guess is on the application somewhere, it asks something like, "From time to time, this position requires you to lift up to 50 lbs. Will you be able to achieve this task?" If she answered, "yes" and she's given no indication that she CAN'T lift 40 lbs., the manager is in jeopardy of a discrimination suit.
Just as an aside, I'm signed up to continue to do work for the census (field interviews for surveys) and the federal government has deemed that you can't work for them if you owe the government any money. It doesn't even matter that you're on some kind of repayment plan and that you're current, if you show a balance with the feds, no job. 
And why the heck is he naming the "felon" he hired. What a swell guy. 
Hope she sues the heck out of him.
