Two others earned a general educational development (GED) certificate.Įstrada made an attempt to earn her GED while pregnant with her second child but had to drop out to pick up overtime hours to afford her rent. Of Gonzalez’s children, only Heather graduated from high school. While raising her children, Gonzalez lived with family members – and at one time in a homeless shelter. Together, they had 13 more children a son died in infancy. After her brief marriage was cut short by a shooting that left her husband dead, she met another man. “The resilience of individuals that have had a lived experience with poverty is really inspiring.” An Attempt at Education DerailedĮstrada’s mother, Bertha Gonzalez, was 14 years old when she got married and 15 when she had her first child, a daughter named Heather. “In the sense of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, I oftentimes see people that in a lot of ways are working harder than many of us – waking up early to catch a bus and drop kids off, doing physical work for their employer that probably wears them out, physically and mentally,” Cooper said. The constant financial upheaval can lead to trauma, “which makes it tough to do even the simplest things,” he added.Ĭomplicating matters are the often burdensome requirements needed to access social services, which include complex paperwork, a lengthy set of documents needed for verification, and access to a cellphone or computer to print and file it all.Ĭoping well with the demands of everyday life often has little to do with a lack of work ethic. “It doesn’t take a lot to sometimes push someone off the cliff,” Cooper said. In addition to what he calls a “poverty tax” – low-income people being forced to pay more for groceries because their transportation options limit their shopping choices – there’s a thin margin of financial security for those with limited assets. “Sometimes these policies, at a high level, seem to make sense but, at a real-life level, don’t add up.” “Poverty is complicated,” said Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank. While some of her challenges are common to those in poverty, others are unique, creating a complex array of needs that cannot be tackled easily, even by the many organizations working locally to address economic disparity. Though pragmatic and resilient, Estrada faces the consequences of past decisions and an uphill battle to make different choices for her future – which could get steeper as the economy worsens. Though she worked to regain custody, started a new job in February, and recently bought a car with tax-refund money, Estrada still has no savings account, no diploma or degree or job training, or a supportive spouse with a steady income. Last fall, Child Protective Services (CPS) removed her children because of concerns they were left unsupervised. Now 26, she has three children of her own.Įstrada’s situation was precarious even before the coronavirus outbreak froze many people in place, leaving them without jobs, child care, or reliable food sources. Since age 19, she has worked a string of commercial housekeeping jobs, like her mother, quitting or getting laid off as the circumstances of her life and the economy ebbed and flowed. The goal was to create a human-centric look at one of the city’s biggest problems.įor more information on why we chose this project or to catch up on any missed stories, visit the Disconnected home page.įollowing in the footsteps of her mother and most of her 12 siblings, Estrada dropped out of high school early because she didn’t like it. The series debuts a new story every Monday and looks at economic segregation through the lens of the major beats the Rivard Report covers. Disconnected is a series about economic segregation in San Antonio.
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