Ebony: I’m embarrassed because I’m late...

Goodman: New Life Community is a non-profit transitional housing program on Cleveland’s east side. It had 280 families apply last year—a 40% increase over the previous year. Ebony has arrived there with her two month-old twins in tow. She is nearly—but not quite—homeless, and one hour late for the orientation...

Ebony: I really haven’t had a chance to adjust to having twins. Everything is just kind of slow. I’m really, really slow.

Goodman: Jordan and Jeremiah are on each arm, in infant carriers. She’s already taken 5-year old Jayvian to daycare and 7-year old Jayshon to school. Ebony is 25. Her oldest son was among the nearly 60,000 babies born to Ohio girls under 19 between 1997 and 2001. The United States has 3.5 million homeless people and 1.4 million are children. Ebony and her children have always been a heartbeat away from homelessness. She was eligible for public housing but thought she could do without it, until she was evicted for not paying her rent. Now, with four kids, no permanent home, and very little money, Ebony hopes New Life Community will help her get back on her feet. And the lessons begin at that first orientation meeting. Dick Furry, a volunteer who teaches the budgeting class, lays down the law...

Furry: If you currently have a checking account or an ATM card, you must turn it into your case manager for safekeeping while in residence.

Goodman: Housing, utilities, and life management classes are free, and some clothing is donated. As for food and day care, most New Life residents handle that with public assistance. Ebony is given a set of goals at the start of the program. In order to graduate she needs to save $1,400, find a full-time job and an affordable place to live. She has four months to get it all together. But she has her hands full, literally. Last night’s dishes are still piled up in the sink early one morning in her cluttered New Life Community apartment.

Goodman: Are you going to try to iron while you hold the baby, too?

Ebony: Yeah...at least I’m not holding both of them.

Goodman: 7-year old Jayshon usually watches the twins when Ebony’s hands are full. But Jayshon is lingering in his bed. 5-year-old Jayvian can’t handle both babies, so Ebony cradles one of the twins in the crook of her elbow while she irons Jayshon’s shirt for school with her free hand.

Ebony: (to Jayvian) Tell him he has to get up and brush his teeth...

Goodman: Ebony takes care of the kids and New Life Community takes care of her, making sure she looks her best when she goes out job-hunting...

Rae Phillips (of New Life Community): I want you [to keep] those on. Try on that brown suit. Leave the same blouse on. You know what I mean? Leave the jacket on...try the skirt...

Goodman: When you’re trying to move from the almost-homeless class to the working class, outward appearance is important. But on the inside, as she recounts in her audio diary, the fruitless job-searching, constant class work and taking care of the four kids has Ebony near collapse.

Ebony: Wednesday, I’m so tired. I don’t know if this is what I need to be saying now, but this is how I feel. I am so tired that I just feel like I want to give up and just say, “forget everything!”

Goodman: Finally, though, she has some good news for her diary.

Ebony: All right. I just got in from my first day of work and the training is good so far. I’m not sure this is a job I’ll stay at for a long time...

Goodman: The job as a customer service representative for a satellite TV company pays only $8.65 an hour. Ebony takes it but keeps job searching on her days off. She was on her way to a job interview when she was arrested.

Ebony: I brought in the new year by going to jail, because I didn’t pay a parking ticket I had back in September.

Goodman: While her car is still in the impound lot , she has to catch buses to get the kids to school and to the childcare center and to get herself to work.

Ebony: I cried. I wanted to cry on the bus, being on that bus with my babies...as cold as it’s been...

Goodman: What happened to Ebony—neglecting to pay a traffic ticket, could happen to anyone. But when you’re nearly homeless, you can’t afford to make that kind of a mistake. The cost was almost insurmountable.

Ebony: I got my car last week. It cost me $500 to get it out. And then I had to pay the fines for not going to court. So, I basically spent the money I had for my deposit.

Goodman: Vicky, her case manager at New Life Community, had warned her not to spend the money to get her car back. With only three weeks to go before graduation, she’s in danger of not meeting the goal of $1,400 in savings.

Vicky: She was supposed to open a bank account and put her money in the bank. So I pointed out to her: “You had three opportunities in order to accomplish that task, and you didn’t. So now you have to have your point.”

Goodman: It’s a penalty point. Ebony has racked up one too many of them...

Ebony: They’re really concerned that I won’t be able to finish the program. Miss Vicky said I need a longer-term program...

Goodman: But soon Ebony has even graver concerns. One of the twins starts running a fever. She gets help at New Life Community’s pediatric clinic. But it gets worse. Now both babies are sick...

Ebony: My babies were breathing really funny and I took them to the hospital. They were diagnosed with asthma—both of them. And they may have RSV. That’s really scary for me because I’ve never really had a sick child before. The other two have actually never had any type of illness as babies.

Goodman: The babies conditions improve, and so does Ebony’s luck.

Ebony: Today is February 5th and I got the house!

Goodman: One of Ebony’s biggest triumphs was finding a decent place to live. In the last three years Cleveland has lost more than a thousand units of affordable housing. For weeks she had spent all her free time apartment-hunting. But her joy is short-lived. She starts worrying about being able to pay the $600 monthly rent. When she took the house she had mistakenly thought that she had been hired for a better-paying job at the Warrensville Developmental Center, helping handicapped children. She had had a second and third interview...

Ebony: I called on Wednesday, and was told: “Oh, we did a final review and determined that you weren’t eligible. You didn’t meet the criteria.”

Goodman: It’s make it or break it time now. Ebony’s mother loans her $300 but it’s still not going to be enough to pay the rent and meet the savings goal to graduate from New Life Community.

Ebony: (crying) I know me. I know I’m not a quitter. This is gonna follow though. I’m not just going to give up and let them tell me I’m not going to make it. I’m going to keep going until the day that I leave. But I’m kinda scared. I don’t want to be homeless again. I want to be able to be comfortable with my children.

Goodman: With the graduation deadline approaching, Ebony convinces her boss to move her from customer service to sales, and she does well, racking up enough in commissions to meet her goal.

Ebony: I was able to make a bonus and make extra money and I bonus, bonus, bonus! I was able to get it. I knew I was going to be able to do it. I just had to figure out how I was going to do it.

Goodman: Eight months after leaving New Life Community, Ebony landed an even better job. She’ll earn about $20,000 a year as a customer service representative for a banking services firm. And she says thanks to New Life Community she’s learned how to keep some of that in the bank.

Ebony: I know what it takes to succeed at what I want. If I want to do it, I have to choose to do it.

Goodman: It’s been a year since Ebony entered New Life Community, and there’s a reunion for everyone who entered with her. But Ebony’s a no-show. Elizabeth was disappointed.

Elizabeth Geiger: In fact, the young lady I was talking to when we walked in—we had been outside talking about Ebony. Both of us were friends with her. We still have concerns for her—that she doesn’t let things overwhelm her to the point that she gives up again.