Evicted, now jobless

APRIL 2, 2020, DAYTONA BEACH — For 13 years, Tiara has been trying to finish college, launch a career and stop struggling to keep her head above water financially.

In 2007, after she graduated from high school in the Orlando area, she moved to Volusia County and enrolled at Daytona State College. But the 31-year-old has always had to juggle school and full-time work, so she’s only been able to knock out a few credits each semester.

Things got harder when she didn’t have a car. Then she had a child. And another child.

She and her boyfriend of 12 years started slipping on rent payments several months ago, and they were pulled down by an undertow of late fees and mounting unpaid rent. About five weeks ago they were evicted.

They wound up at the Hope Place family shelter just north of Daytona Beach, and earlier this month they had almost clawed their way back to stability. Then the coronavirus brought everything crashing down again.

Tiara lost her job about two weeks ago, joining the legions of workers financially wounded by fallout from the pandemic. She asked that her last name not be used because her former employer implored everyone who was laid off not to speak about it publicly. She’s trying to preserve her chances of being rehired.

So now Tiara finds herself in a tiny room at Hope Place trying to educate and entertain her 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter every day since Volusia County schools have been shut down until at least April 15.

It’s not an ideal situation to find another job, especially with no car. She fell behind on her car loan payments in her ultimately futile attempt to keep up with the rent.

“I was working like 60 hours a week,” Tiara said. “To go from that to nothing is really hard. Now that my income stopped, that stopped everything.”

Her boyfriend has hung onto his landscaping job, but getting laid off from her stable Monday through Friday office job has put their finances back into a tailspin. They managed to save a little money before Tiara became unemployed, but she wants to use that to buy a car so she can work and get around.

Her plan is to find a job with nighttime hours so either she or her boyfriend can be with the children while they’re out of school. She has worked as a certified nursing assistant on and off for 12 years, and she could make up to $20 per hour if she’s able to find an in-home care position with an agency.

The job she just lost paid $14 per hour, but it was a valuable position to her because the hours were steady and allowed her to be with her children most any time they weren’t in school or at an after-school program.

Most people at Hope Place have managed to keep working despite the economic crash the coronavirus set off, said Buck James, the shelter’s executive director.

“Even those who have lost jobs seem to be finding other opportunities at places that are hiring like Publix and Amazon,” James said.

The shelter is helping its clients navigate the pandemic as much as possible, including watching the children of working parents since the Head Start and after school programs at Hope Place are shut down until school reopens.

Tiara hopes to be back at Daytona State College this fall working toward a degree as a registered nurse. She’s already taken prerequisite classes, and thinks she could finish in two years or less if she can stabilize everything else in her life.

“I’m not that old,” she said. “I still have time to do anything. I want to do something that will always be in demand.”

The coronavirus made a hard situation harder for Tiara and her family. After becoming homeless and winding up at the Hope Place family shelter north of Daytona Beach, Tiara lost her job amid the financial fallout from the virus. But she’s hopeful she’ll find another job and return to Daytona State College to pursue a nursing degree. [News-Journal/David Tucker] |

For now, she’s grateful for the roof she has over her head at Hope Place, where she doesn’t have to worry about rent, utilities or most food costs. Hope Place has free meals in its cafeteria, but she supplements that when her kids get finicky about what’s being served.

Tiara worries about having enough to eat if the virus spread skyrockets and she can’t leave the shelter to get food. So she has stocked up on cans of ravioli, crackers and bottled water along with soap, hand sanitizer, bleach and baby wipes.

“Uncertainty is probably the hardest thing right now,” she said.

She has been spending money on cabs when she needs to shop. Sometimes that cab fare has become precious funds expended for naught since she’s having trouble finding what she needs amid the coronavirus outbreak.

She and her boyfriend had been saving $600 a week, but now that’s down to $300 per week. They hope to amass $4,000-to-$5,000 so they can make a down payment on a home.

“I’m still praying about it,” Tiara said. “Our hope and our plan was to be able to purchase a home. It’s been so hard.”

If she can stay at Hope Place another two months, which would be in line with the shelter’s 90-day maximum limit, she thinks they can save enough money. She’s not dreaming about anything fancy. Maybe a Habitat for Humanity home, or something they can buy with some sort of low-income assistance.

Until Tiara finds a job, there’s a silver lining in her being with her children all day. Her son has chronic bronchitis and her daughter has asthma, so she’s been making sure her kids wash their hands frequently and she’s been wiping down things like playground equipment before they touch anything.

“It’s most definitely really scary because you don’t know what’s happening,” she said. “Now the kids cough and you wonder, is it more? Should I take them to the hospital for the test? We live in a community where not everybody has the same hygiene. Many are not washing their hands.”

She said she saw a girl in the cafeteria with a hospital band on her wrist “coughing all over the place.”

“I can’t take any chances with my kids,” she said.

Hope Place has a communal living environment, with shared bathrooms, a cafeteria, laundry room and computers available to residents. James said there’s no indication anyone at the shelter, which has maxed out at about 180 residents, has caught the coronavirus. He said his staff has taken steps to try to prevent that, including doing extra cleaning and requiring people to wash their hands before they get in line for food.

Tiara’s one-room unit at the shelter is dorm-style and spartan. Her family sleeps together in close quarters, and there is no refrigerator or microwave oven. Just two sets of bunk beds and a few dressers.

Tiara hopes to give her kids a home of their own soon.

“I want my children to have something that belongs to them,” she said.

The past few months have been humbling for her. When times got tough in the past, she lived in motels. But she’s never been homeless before.

“Before this I never needed help,” Tiara said. “It’s very eye-opening. I never thought I’d be in this position.”

She hopes she’ll never fall this low again.

“I feel my family’s future is really bright,” Tiara said. “This place has helped my family stay together. I’m still able to be the type of mother I want to be with my children. This has made it so much easier of a process.”

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