Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412190027
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Now 24, three more children later, she can't seem to fully separate from government assistance.
Laurie has tried to hold down a job - at a pizza parlor, a fast-food restaurant, a convenience store. While at work, she would leave the children in a baby sitter's care.
Always, the baby sitters would bow out after a few months. And always, Laurie would quit work and return to Aid to Families with Dependent Children and food stamps.
She can't afford traditional child-care centers.
"Day care is so expensive," Laurie said. "One center I called last summer wanted $110 a week, just for my 14-month-old, and $80 apiece for the other three," who are 8, 7 and 5.
Last year, Laurie applied for Fee System Child Day Care, a government-funded program that provides low-income families with financial assistance for child care. Her name was added to a waiting list.
Last month - more than a year after applying - the Roanoke County Department of Social Services sent Laurie a notice instructing her to come in for an appointment.
Laurie missed the appointment. She had no transportation, she said. She doesn't own a car. No sense having a car if you don't have a driver's license, she said. She lives in the Northeast part of Roanoke County, not served by the public bus system.
"My name was taken off the waiting list," Laurie said. "I have to go back down and reapply."
That means one more year's wait, one more year without child care unless she can find a friend or neighbor to watch the children, she says.
Laurie wants to return to a job at a fast-food restaurant that is within walking distance of her home. But she can't without child care.
She "is dying" to go back to school and study nursing. But she can't without child care and transportation.
"I don't like living like this at all," Laurie says. "It's hard, very hard. But ain't much I can do without a baby sitter and transportation."
Four children. Three fathers. Two child-support payments. One $261.90 monthly welfare check. A $260-a-month payment on her trailer home and the lot on which it sits. A booklet of $363 worth of food stamps each month.
Laurie somehow makes it work. How she does is complicated.
She receives child support from the father of her oldest child, 8-year-old Casey. Still, she receives AFDC benefits for the child. The support, minus a $50 income disregard, makes her eligible, she says.
The father of her two middle children - Brandy, 7, and Tiffany, 5 - refused to pay child support. As a compromise, he agreed four months ago to let Tiffany live with him. Brandy lives with Laurie. She receives AFDC benefits for Brandy.
The youngest, 14-month-old Paris, was fathered by Laurie's current boyfriend. He fully supports the child with a monthly check, Laurie says. She does not receive AFDC for Paris.
"I know it's confusing," she says. "Too many kids, too many fathers."
Why?
Laurie says she was a victim of failed birth control. With Casey, she was on the pill. With Brandy, her partner had used a condom. With Paris, her boyfriend was using a condom and she a sponge.
"I guess I'm just very fertile," Laurie said. "Some people just can't help it."
Laurie dropped out of school in the 10th grade. Studying and caring for a baby was too much, she said.
In 1989, a social worker put her in touch with a Fifth District Employment and Training Consortium program, funded by a two-year grant that had been approved a year before by the Virginia General Assembly.
The program - called Project Image - helped young single mothers who had dropped out of school get an education, get off welfare and find good jobs. The program helped participants obtain their General Equivalency Diploma (GED) and with vocational training and employment once they earned their diploma. The program also held weekly self-esteem-building workshops and several out-of-town weekend retreats, with child care provided.
Laurie earned her GED through the program. But she said she also developed the urge to get out from under government assistance.
"We would talk about problems," she said. "One of the things that came up was what hurts us about ADC is that, when we do get a job, they take everything away. They don't give you a chance to really get started on a job.
"Instead of pulling everything away at one time, they should take a little away at a time."
Christmas is two weeks away. The children are giddy, asking their mother what Santa might slip under the tree.
Laurie is worried she won't have enough. She signed up for the Community Christmas Store in Salem, a volunteer effort to assist needy families at Christmas. She found at least one nice item for each of the children. But her shopping "points," used in place of dollars, didn't seem to go as far as they did last year, she said.
"What extra money I have I've been trying to get the kids stuff for Christmas," Laurie said. "The last couple months here, I haven't had much of anything left over."
Still, Laurie has tried to bring some holiday cheer to the family's tiny Roanoke County trailer. A tree stands in the corner of the living room, decorated with garland and ornaments. It belonged to her father, who died three days before Christmas last year, she said.
She flips on a light switch in the hallway just off the girls' bedrooms. On the wall are photos of the children - baby pictures, school pictures, pictures of them with their grandparents.
"I love my kids," she says. "But I wish I had held off having them until I could have finished school and all that.
"It's hard. I wish I would have waited."
by CNB