May 25, 2008
Friends in Need: Preventing Homelessness Before It Starts
By Jan Johnson Carol could never catch up financially. Before she could pay for rent, food, and child care, her purse was empty. As we became friends, I often found her staring into an empty refrigerator and crying over her broken marriage. She was a teacher, but she didn”t manage money well and she was too devastated by her divorce to care. In the summer, she taught summer school, but when it was over in July, she couldn”t find a temporary job that coordinated with child care and bus schedules. I tried to help. I paid her to watch my






