Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell
Robert Neal relaxes outside of his room at Superior Creek Lodge. Mr. Neal says he earned between $60,000 to $70,000 a year running his own roofing business and moved to Superior Creek Lodge when he and his wife divorced.

Reflecting on how he came to live at the Superior Creek Lodge, Robert Neal, 43, shakes his head at how drastically his life has changed.

“Truthfully, you never know. I don’t care what you’ve got or how good you’re doing. You don’t know from one day to the next, you could wind up over here,” he said, as he stood in the doorway of his one-room efficiency at the motel in East Ridge.

Until last August, Mr. Neal says he earned between $60,000 and $70,000 a year running his own roofing business and lived in a nice home in Sequatchie County with all the creature comforts of a middle-class life.

His security began to falter when he and his wife filed for divorce. Mr. Neal said the divorce cost him his good credit, his assets and his connection to the customer base he had spent years building. He moved into the motel in September to tide him over until he gets back on his feet, but he is still reeling from the rapid downturn in his circumstances.

“To go in a month’s time from being on top of the world, living in a $150,000 home, everything nice, big screen TV, nice vehicles and then you separate and it’s like you’ve lost it all,” he said. “I never dreamed I would end up over here.”

Until his own life fell apart, Mr. Neal said he didn’t realize how many others also faced few good options. Most of his neighbors are working, he said, but few make enough money to save and get out.

Unlike many of his neighbors, Mr. Neal graduated from high school and completed a couple years of college — an advantage that better equips him to meet the challenges he now faces.

One of the unexpected bright spots of the experience, he said, has been the willingness of his neighbors to share what little they have with one another. Whenever someone has money, they go to the grocery store and load up on food to feed the neighborhood. The next week, others reciprocate.

“Everybody’s pretty much on the same level,” Mr. Neal said, “so everybody helps one another and if you didn’t, a lot of people wouldn’t eat. A lot of people do good just to pay their rent. And that’s it.”