> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Mother and daughter reunite following life on the street - URL: https://www.smdp.com/mother-and-daughter-reunite-following-life-on-the-street/ - Published: 2004-10-11T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T01:06:03.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless *By KELLY HAYES-RAITT* “I like the red one with the weird jelly things in the handles,” declared 9-year-old Tabitha Fox, enthused from an afternoon of pre-Christmas window shopping for a new bike. Tabitha has a lot more to be enthusiastic about: She is nearing the one-year anniversary of being reunited with her mom, Jennifer, following a two-year separation. After Jennifer fled the apartment she shared with her abusive boyfriend, the single mother — who received no child support from Tabitha’s dad — housed her daughter with relatives while she moved from hotel to hotel, couch to couch, as she sank deeper into an alcohol-and drug-related addiction. While her mom was homeless and getting her life together, Tabitha was equally rootless, moving from home to home, family to family and school to school. “Sometimes no one would tell me what was going on,” said Tabitha, who is in the fourth grade. “I just had to pack my stuff. It was kind of scary. I changed schools about four or five times. I had maybe one time in first grade (I changed schools), two times in second grade, then again in third grade. Now that I’m in fourth grade, I haven’t changed schools yet. It was a little hard; sometimes I didn’t fit in. When you change in the middle of the year, everybody just stares at you. I had to go to therapy, and I didn’t like that. I had to take medicine because I was depressed about not living with my mom. That made me sad.” It is sad to contemplate the amount of sadness generated by each person — obvious and not — who is living without a true home. Whatever Jennifer’s circumstances, her young daughter inherited our society’s ambivalence toward assisting homeless people. This precocious 9-year-old, who insisted on a private interview out of her mother’s earshot, reunited with her mother last November. “I feel really safe where I live (now),” she said. “I live in a safe town. Hardly anything bad happens here. I go to a safe school.” Tabitha’s new-found security is due to the CLARE Foundation, a social service agency with 12 programs that serve 2,500 people each year. CLARE helped put Jennifer back on her feet — and still helps her, 22 sober months later. CLARE’s services run the whole “continuum of care,” said assistant program director Dave Rolston. “From detox from substances or alcohol to long-term day treatment and outpatient programs, we run 30-day recovery programs, long-term resident programs from 30 to 180 days, and four different outpatient programs for people who want to stay in their own homes but are looking to battle addictions by seeing a treatment specialist.” CLARE relies on funding from both government and private sources, such as foundation grants and individual donations. “There’s meetings on Tuesday nights when my mom takes me, too,” Tabitha said. “There’s after-school programs. There are other meetings just for grown-ups. They have child care, and we do arts, and people come over and teach us stuff. We have movie nights. We do counseling every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. We have to go to places for four days. On Fridays, we get to rest. Thank God for that.” In addition to providing on-going day treatment and after-school programs, CLARE’s Family Center works with the Los Angeles School District to talk with students as young as fourth grade about addiction prevention. The program reaches 10,000 students each year. An adjunct to the family center is a women-with-children recovery home for mothers battling addictions. “The controlled structure allows mothers to begin to heal those relationships with their kids,” Rolston said. “I like to read more than anything,” Tabitha said. “I like my mystery and murder books. I used to read Nancy Drew in second grade. Now I read R.L. Stine. I get books from my teacher and the library. “It’s great being back with my mom because it was hard to fit in. We can do stuff we were never able to do together — like go to the beach and stay there — unless there’s a meter. We can go shopping. “At CLARE, we make a Christmas list with three things, and probably I’ll get all that I ask for,” she continued. “I’m asking for a Gameboy Advanced Play Station 2.” And what about Halloween? What does she want to be? “I don’t know, I think I’ll just stay home and carve a pumpkin,” Tabitha said. “I love carving pumpkins. This is my first Halloween with my mom. I haven’t carved a pumpkin in so long.” (Kelly Hayes-Raitt is a political consultant specializing in public relations and community organizing campaigns. She (310) 474-5545 or www.CommunityCampaigns.com). *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 11, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/101104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)