Chattanooga: Neediest Cases helps mother pay her rent

Elaine Doss feels like she lives day to day, struggling to support her two teenage children.

Mrs. Doss works five days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant. In the filleting section, she works in 40-degree temperatures. But she often must miss days from work to take her two children to the doctor or for other appointments.

“I pay rent week by week,” she said. “Last week, I missed four days of work. This week, I hope they’ll work with me (on the rent).”

Over the past year, Mrs. Doss has received help several times from the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults through the Chattanooga Times Free Press’ Neediest Cases Fund.

The first time was in January to help her pay the $230 weekly rent. Her case manager at the Partnership, Karen Kissinger, wrote on the Neediest Cases request form that Mrs. Doss scraped together enough money to pay deposits for water and electricity after living without water for a month, but she didn’t have enough for rent.

In May, Mrs. Doss had to request $172.36 to pay the electricity bill.

“Each time she gets control of the situation, anther setback occurs,” Ms. Kissinger wrote in the request form.

Most recently in November, she asked for $160 to help pay for her weekly rent at a trailer park off Signal Mountain Road because she had missed a week from work due to health-related issues.

She said the Partnership is like a guardian angel watching over her family.

“There are so many places that just tell you, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you.’”

Mrs. Doss said her children often go without.

“They see all these other kids with games and iPods and stuff like that and they’re lucky to have a new pair of shoes,” she said. “That makes me feel really bad, but there’s nothing I can do about it, I’m working as hard as I can.”