ABSTRACT

Joelle is in her forties. She lives with her still-young daughter. Joelle is poor. She works when she can find work in a city with few jobs, fewer each year. Work comes, when it comes at all, seasonally. Joelle and her daughter live in a tiny apartment in a shabby neighborhood. What income they have comes from a government program supporting minor children. Joelle is eligible for additional government benefits. The only catch is that she must provide the name and address of her long-separated but still not legally divorced husband.