ABSTRACT
We now turn to the story of eleven year-old Jeffrey Ricks and his family. Jeffrey’s and Kara’s stories have much in common. Like hers, his family had a long history of residential instability and had struggled with domestic violence and substance abuse. As was the case with Kara’s family, his family’s homelessness was really a symptom of a constellation of other problems. Like hers, his family had always been very poor, and the educational and occupational backgrounds of his parents suggested that it would be very difficult for them to emerge from poverty even if their other problems were overcome. In Jeffrey’s case, minority status may have been an additional complication. Like Kara, Jeffrey had siblings in school who were not doing well; there was cause for grave concern about the academic futures of at least two of them. Like Kara, Jeffrey initially did very badly at Jefferson School, and, again like Kara, got extensive help from the school, as well as help from The Chalet and from me. There were also some significant ways in which their stories differed.
