Life on the Edge

December 19, 2025

Dear friends,

A single mother explained her situation to me recently as she applied for rent assistance…

“I’m in school and I’m driving for DoorDash because it's flexible, but the job is so hard on my car, I’m constantly having to get it fixed. My life is on the right track. I’m on the Dean’s List at Tarrant County College, but my last car repair used up all the money I had for rent.”

As published in our recent report Disrupting Poverty and Promoting Well-being for Single Mother Led Families in Tarrant County, here are the facts:

1. The average rent in Tarrant County for a two-bedroom is $1,733 per month.
2. The median monthly income for a single mother household is $3,398 per month.

You can do the math. Rent takes up 51% of her income. Any bump in the road can cause a spiral that results in homelessness. Families are living too close to the margins, which is one of the reasons that Tarrant County’s eviction rate is five times the national average. From our research, we know that in the 10 to 12 weeks after eviction families generally seek help first from family and friends (sleeping on couches), then resort to cheap motels, then sleep in their cars until they get too scared or too cold before going to shelters. Parents lose their jobs along the way because it is too hard to maintain employment in these conditions. Kids miss school – sometimes for weeks.

Historically, when families get to shelters, the door to housing subsidies opens. After assessment, they are referred to organizations that help with rent and, if they are lucky, they are enrolled with an organization that also provides active case management. Center for Transforming Lives does much more, combining rent assistance and case management with a comprehensive, integrated approach that addresses the needs of both parent and child, partnering with them so they can thrive. Last year, 91% of the 255 families remained stably housed after we worked with them and 57% increased their income.

But the world of homeless services for families is changing. Instead of offering housing first, the new requirement will be that families must be employed before they can move into housing. Mothers with a child under school age must have child care before she can work, but 21,000 children are on the waiting list for subsidized care (as of December 2025). Success seems impossible. In addition to our core programs, here is what Center for Transforming Lives is doing about it:

1. We took on the Tarrant County Rent and Utility Assistance program, doubling the amount of money - to $2 million this year — that is spent directly on rent and utility assistance through efficiencies.
2. We are developing new partnerships with schools and vocational partners, getting more mothers the education and skills they need to increase their income.
3. We are supporting more mothers than ever in developing small businesses to augment their income, so they can have more income and even build savings so they can weather a crisis.
4. We are enhancing our Housing Services, adding an employment specialist to help place more mothers into higher earning jobs and career pathways.

Mothers and children that live on the edge are not thriving; they are barely surviving. With your support, we are the place of safety, education and transformation that single mothers and their children need.

I cannot thank you enough for your generosity, compassion and partnership. We could not do this without you.

Warmly,
Carol