The urgency to find jobs and homes for Americans was personified Tuesday at President Obama’s town hall meeting in Ft. Myers, Florida, when a questioner stepped forward to ask for help.

"I have an urgent need, unemployment and homelessness, a very small vehicle for my family and I to live in," Henrietta Hughes told Obama, her voice quivering. "The housing authority has two years' waiting lists, and we need something more than the vehicle and the parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help."

As the audience rose to its feetand cheered in support, the president gave Hughes a kiss on the cheek and told her, "We're going to do everything we can to help you, but there are a lot of people like you." He said his staff would meet with her after the town hall.

Hughes told reporters later that she and her adult son were homeless because she was on disability for cancer and her son had lost his job in computer programming. They then lost their house and neither of them has been able to find work, she said.

She would not say what kind of help the White House promised her, but did say she was “satisfied” with the effort. After the meeting, people walked up to her afterwards and gave her business cards and cash. Chene Thompson, wife of Florida state Rep. Nick Thompson, also offered Hughes a home she owned in La Belle, a town about two hours from Ft. Myers.

A White House spokesman told BlackAmericaWeb.com that Hughes also was connected with local housing officials who said they would offer her assistance. A call to Rep. Thompson’s office seeking comment, however, was not returned.

Within hours, some bloggers and conservative Web sites criticized the administration, suggesting Hughes was a plant in the audience or a con artist who saw an opportunity to get over, and implying the news media would not check out the African-American’s woman background as they did that of Joe the Plumber, a white man who confronted Obama during a campaign stop in Ohio.

Still, others said Hughes’ plight reflects just the problem Obama says can be helped by quick passage of a stimulus bill.

“It’ll pay dividends with middle of the road Americans,” conservative Philadelphia radio host Michael Smerconish told MSNBC, adding that Republican resistance to the stimulus bill is “out of step and needs to get in step” with the American public.

“This is going to be a tough fight and it’s not clear that (Obama is) going to get everything he wants,” said Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson.

He also told MSNBC, however, that GOP resistance isn’t helping the party, either, and that instead of putting pressure on Obama it could backfire. “Getting nothing done is a failure and a catastrophic failure, according to all the economists.”

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