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...away. By the time Andrews passes the corner house, known as drug spot, and a stoop blaring salsa music, her front stairs are lined with children. "It gets kinda crazy when I get home. Everybody's all 'Mommy, mommy, mommy.'" says Andrews, feigning irritation. "I about fall into a coma come 10:00."
So far, the only sign of exhaustion from Andrews is a deep breath before the onslaught from her children begins. "I want to be working, but there's too many loose ends at home," she says matter-of-factly. Asked what it would take for her to leave welfare, Andrews raises her eyebrows--I have tried and it does not seem possible, her look says--and ponders the question. "If I do Scratch n' Match [a state lottery game], that might cover me for three or four years," she says. Pressed for specifics, Andrews launches into a list.
She'd have to find affordable child care for her children; the biggest worry is Bianca, a timid 3-year-old with caramel skin, who's been plagued with neurological, renal and developmental problems. But then there's Alexis, a wide-eyed 10-year-old with seizure problems, and Camron, a startlingly pretty 8-year-old boy who has difficulty communicating.
She'd have to close her preventive services case with the Administration for Children's Services, a lingering threat that she could lose her children.
She'd have to get Louis, her children's father and her partner for 20 years, off her Section 8 case and lease so his sporadic paychecks aren't counted against her housing benefits; she threw him out last year, after foster care workers explained that his drug use could lead to her losing her kids.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
She'd have to find someone to help care for her ailing mother.
She'd have to get her blood pressure, so dangerously high that it causes pounding headaches that force her to lay down, under control.
She'd have to figure out a way to keep up her new apartment, the first she's had since entering the shelter system three years ago.
Bright, no-nonsense and world-weary, Andrews considers employment out of her reach. "What job am I gonna do with all these appointments?" she says, pulling a cheap calendar out of a plastic bag serving as her briefcase. Notes like "Bianca, neurologist" and "FEGS 10:30 AM" leave April and May covered in scribbles; fewer than seven days are free over the course of the two months.
At 38, Andrews has been a part of the city welfare system almost as long as welfare reform. In 1998 she joined the 1.1 million New Yorkers who began to shuffle between its confines and the world of work after the passage of federal welfare reform in 1996. Andrews likes the idea of supporting herself, and has done so in the past, but she's grown jaded. "My experience is, the minute you get close to [getting off welfare], something happens--paperwork, a computer error--and you get screwed," she says. "There's nothing wrong with workfare, per se, but each individual case is different."
It's a declaration some people in the city's welfare office might agree with. This past February, the city Human Resource Administration (HRA) launched WeCare, an ambitious initiative intended to move the most challenging welfare...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
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