Higher Ground: New Hope for the Working Poor and Their Children

Chapter 8: New Hope’s Lessons

Chapter 8 New Hope’s Lessons I n 2004, a full decade after she became eligible for New Hope’s benefits , Lakeisha, at age thirty-three, was still with Kevin, and they had purchased a small, well-kept house in a quiet, safe northside Milwaukee neighborhood. She and Kevin were planning to marry since Lakeisha had filed for divorce from Tyrone. She worked at the same agency that provided her second New Hope community service job, at an annual salary of a little more than $17,000 with fringe benefits. She did data entry and office coordination work, and still found time to lend an ear when the people coming into the agency needed someone to talk to. About a year earlier, she was finally able to buy a car. Her eight-to-five schedule allowed her to drop the children off at school and pick them up afterward (they attended an after-school program), though it did not leave her as much time with her children as she would have liked. Her two daughters, Monesha and Rhea, were doing well at school. Lakeisha hoped that both would earn college degrees but had not explicitly encouraged them to think along these lines. Her son, Eric, continued to struggle with his learning disability, but he was doing fine in school and remained engaged. He was in a combination of regular and special education classes. Lakeisha, however, worried about his future. Kevin’s job as a driver paid more than Lakeisha’s but required a variable combination of both early morning and evening work. With their combined incomes, making ends meet was less of a problem than it once was. Apart from mortgage and car payments they had few outstanding debts. Her emotional health had been up and down, but she reported feeling “really positive” lately. Lakeisha still had fond memories of the New Hope program, but if it were resurrected, she would not apply because “other people should have a chance to get it.” Our 2004 visit found Elena, at thirty-three, in her eighth year as a caseworker for a human services company. She still liked her job and her coworkers, earned more than $35,000 a year, and enjoyed a full range of fringe benefits. Despite her relatively high salary, she continued to struggle with managing her money. Her electricity was cut off just a NEW HOPE’S LESSONS month before our visit and not restored until she made a $600 down payment on her substantial debt with the utility company. Elena’s financial situation was precarious because of her spending habits and debts. In late 1998 (about a year after the end of New Hope), her debts totaled more than $20,000, not including money she owed to members of her family. In 1999 she was forced to declare bankruptcy. At the time of our visit in 2004, five years beyond that bankruptcy filing, she still had trouble avoiding impulse purchases. About two years earlier, after years of a chaotic relationship, she had separated from Manuel. Even after he moved out, however, he visited her apartment almost daily, and their fights and his abuse continued for some time. The big surprise in Elena’s life was that she was about to marry Felipe, whom she had met in the Caribbean two years ago. They had seen each other a few times since then, and he arrived in Milwaukee two weeks before our visit on a ninety-day “fiancé” visa. Manuel had since stopped coming to her apartment , much to Elena’s relief. “Since Felipe arrived I feel that I have a home, I have a family,” she said. “It’s different. Everything was a fight, screaming, hitting. Felipe is not aggressive and doesn’t scream. He wants to resolve things through talking.” She said she was “figuring out” how to communicate in this way. Elena had high hopes that her relationship with Felipe would mark the end of constant arguments and domestic abuse in her family, but she was cautious. “The fact that we are getting along so well may be a honeymoon period. I’m very used to living alone and I’m still trying to adjust to living with someone.” Although college-educated, Felipe faced possible difficulty finding a job until his English improved, but he was looking and ambitious to succeed in the United States. He had taken over managing Elena’s household —cooking, cleaning, repairing, looking after the children, and helping her to get...