Ebony Rhodes had a job. Actually, she had two. She was employed at Walmart but still couldn’t afford an apartment for her and her four children Calvin, Issac, Ja’heame, and Dannaija.
Complications from a chronic blood disorder forced her to miss some work which just made things worse.
“I was only working at Walmart and trying to make sure that I’m able to feed my kids and keep gas in the car,” Rhodes told WTXL. “I was unable to get a place.”
She was unable to make a deposit on an apartment so she and her children had to live in her 20-year-old Buick Regal for six months.
They ate, slept, played video games, and enjoyed family time in that car.
But that was their only option since she couldn’t find a shelter that would accommodate an entire family. And she refused to have her family split apart.
“A lot of times I didn’t sleep because the kids were asleep,” she told FOX 8. “I was watching to make sure nothing happened — no one tried to rob us … so we’d just stay right there in the car.
Finding a place to park safely overnight was sometimes hard and her kids would miss school more than they should.
“I apologized to my kids and let them know I’m sorry,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes tried to do the best she could with what she had but she knew it wasn’t enough and it upset her deeply.
“That’s the worst I’ve ever felt – not being able to be able to provide for my kids as I should be,” said Rhodes. “As a mother, that’s your job.
She was taking her children to the library to study for finals when she was pulled over for having expired tags on her car. She also had an expired license and no car insurance.
“She came to the car and asked why was I crying and I was like, ‘because I know my license isn’t good,’” recalled Rhodes.
Rhodes’ car was impounded and she was arrested and taken to jail.
Thankfully, a co-worker was able to pick up her children until her sister from Florida came to get them. Rhodes eventually explained to the police that she was living in her car with her children when they found bags of clothing in the car.
“I remember turning to my wife and saying, ‘Michelle, we have to do something.’ so she said, ‘go do something,” said Deputy Police Chief Jeff Glazier.
Glazier made a call to the director of a shelter he met a week prior.
“I called her up and said, ‘listen: I’ve got a family of five, including three boys and a girl and he’s 17. Do you have any room,” said Glazier. “And she said, ‘yeah, I’ve got some room.'”
Glazier admits that staying in a shelter isn’t the ideal situation but it would serve as a short-term solution and better alternative to living in a cramped car.
Glazier was eventually able to help Rhodes, who now works as a restaurant manager, get an apartment.
The Atlanta Police Department also set up a GoFundMe account for the family so that she’ll never worry about going homeless again. So far, $69,595 has been raised. Glazier says helping Rhodes was easy.
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“If you talk to Ebony and you watch her, she has a great work ethic. It’s just that she was sick. And so, when you’re sick you can’t work and you can’t make any money,” he said. “It’s not like she didn’t want to work when I first met her, she had two jobs … trying to do the right thing, she’s trying to earn money for her family.”
Unfortunately, Rhode’s family was among the more than 176,000 people in the U.S. who are homeless without access to shelter.
About 19,000 of those people are apart of a family.
If you’re among one of those families you can learn how to get help here. Learn more about this beautiful act of kindness in the video below.
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