Marinette R

Marinette is thirty-six and recently moved into a homeless shelter with her five children. They had been living with her children's father in a comfortable house in Northeast Philadelphia until he suddenly left the country without an explanation. Because the father is not a citizen of the United States, Marinette was unable to seek child support from him, and was left to provide financially and emotionally for her five children. She was working as a security guard and had taken in a boarder to her already crowded house in an attempt to meet her rent payments. But in the same month, she lost her job due to a documentation error and was evicted from her home.

Marinette and her children now share one room in a Philadelphia shelter. The shelter is often crowded and noisy, and her older children struggle to focus on their homework. Marinette stays in the shelter most days, caring for her two youngest children, aged one and two, and worn out from trying to keep her family together.