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At Shelter, Gifts and a New Home

LEAH FRIEDMAN, Staff Writer
From the News and Observer

Raleigh, NC: Lakesha King and two of her seven children opened presents on Christmas Day in their room at the Wake County Salvation Army Shelter for Women and Children. Surrounded by bunk beds, Bryan Chance, 4, opened package after package of jeans and jackets. Rashonna King, 1, fed a bottle to her new baby doll and tried to take her brother's new crayons.

Four of King's other children, ages 5 to 11, also stay with her in the shelter, but their dad surprised King on Christmas Eve by taking the children with him. Her oldest son, who is 14, stays with his grandmother.

A company in the Research Triangle Park that didn't want to be named adopted all the families in the shelter for Christmas, providing them with clothes, dolls and games, such as Memory. The company refurbished a Hewlett-Packard laptop for King. She has never used one before.

King and her children have been in the shelter since July after she quit her job as a dietary aide at a nursing home to be with a man she thought was "the one."

He wasn't, and she quickly ran out of rent money. She moved the family in with her father until space opened up at the shelter.

The Salvation Army's shelter on South Person Street in downtown Raleigh usually has a waiting list of at least 20 women. But in this slumping economy, the waiting list has swelled to 80, said Christine Shaw, director of the Salvation Army's social ministries.

"It's not just job loss," that brings the women to the shelter, she said. "When the economy slows down, our families have the kind of jobs that get hours cut, and they get behind on bills."

In fact, most of the women in the shelter work, Shaw said.

Many federal programs that offer assistance to single women require them to work at least 30 hours a week, Shaw said.

But single moms often have a hard time finding jobs that fit their families' schedules. A lot of retail jobs, for instance, require working nights and weekends. But these women can't find day care — and if they do, they can't afford it. That leaves them short of the 30-hour requirement for federal assistance, Shaw said, forcing some to seek a home at the shelter.

Lately, Shaw said, she has seen more single women with four-year degrees moving into the shelter. One recent shelter resident was getting her master's, Shaw said.

King is still looking for a job in a restaurant or nursing home.

The good news is, King won't be at the shelter for much longer. She has secured a four-bedroom apartment for herself and her children with the help of Salvation Army.

They move in next Sunday, she said with a big smile on her face.