Neediest Cases helps Chattanooga mother get housing

Eunice White sits in her home Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. White received $250 from the Neediest Cases Fund.
Eunice White sits in her home Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. White received $250 from the Neediest Cases Fund.

A 25-year crack cocaine addiction and a broken relationship cost Eunice White her son and a home for five years, until the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults surrounded her with support, helped her find housing and recommended her for the Neediest Cases Fund.

The fund gave her $250. That's all she needed to pay off her debt to the Chattanooga Housing Authority and get a Housing Choice Voucher for a rental home.

"Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me," said White, describing the care she got from counselors at the Partnership and her assistance from Neediest Cases.

The voucher took the 53-year-old mother of two from sleeping in shelters or on friends' couches to a two-bedroom home with an open-space kitchen and hardwood floors.

White is among more than 170 people and families who received a total of $68,000 from January through October from the Neediest Cases Fund.

The money comes from readers who contribute to it after seeing stories highlighting the needs of local residents. The fund helps people pay for things such as rent, medicine, transportation or utilities.

Chattanooga Times Publisher Adolph Ochs launched the fund during the holiday season in 1914. Since then newspapers across the country have established similar funds and made holiday giving an annual tradition among newspaper readers.

Donations to the Neediest Cases Fund will be accepted every weekend in December at The Holiday Market hosted indoors at the Chattanooga Convention Center. Donations can also be made by mail.

"The Neediest Cases Fund helps in more ways than one," said Denise Witcher, the Partnership's transitional housing specialist. "It helps families find places to live, get lights turned on and get bills paid so they can have a stable life."

White has been drug-free for three years. With her addiction behind her and with stable housing, White is set to go to court in January to seek custody of her 13-year-old son.

Addiction haunted her for nearly half of her adult life. But White said she finally got so tired that she had to stop taking drugs and running from law enforcement and her child-support obligations.

"I felt like my life was worth more living," she said. "I was not raised that way."

White turned herself in to jail in March 2015 and served three months for back child support and contempt of court.

Within weeks of her release, her oldest sister died - White said it was another wake-up call to get her life together. She sought help from the Partnership in February and from that time on has been moving toward stability.

She joined a local church, where she's become the piano player and minister of music, and she's seeking a job in housekeeping.

"I've been blessed," she said through tears. "Even when I didn't think I could make it, God made a way for me."

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.

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