BY KAREN SAMPLES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON - Kim Siler's apartment is stuffed with the evidence of children. Scattered toys. Laundry. Juice cups. Even a metal crib in the corner of the living room, complete with sleeping baby inside.
This is Ms. Siler's life. And as the welfare deadline passed, it also become her livelihood.
A single woman caring for an adolescent nephew and five children of her own, she needed a flexible work schedule. Cleaning at a hotel - which she tried for four months this year - proved impossible: She couldn't manage her household down to the millisecond necessary to arrive at work on time.
So she got creative.
With encouragement from social workers at Welcome House, the nonprofit agency helping welfare recipients enter the work world, Ms. Siler became certified to provide child care in her home. Now she watches a neighbor's three children as well as three of her own during the day. She anticipates receiving about $600 a month for the baby-sitting. She also gets $309 a month in food stamps, and, when her children's fathers come through, about $615 in child support.
Her five kids still have their Medicaid cards, which was a primary concern. Ms. Siler's card was taken away about three months ago; she's not sure what she'll do about her own health needs now.
She knew welfare reform might affect the size of her checks but says that wasn't her main reason for change.
She always wanted independence. Circumstances converged to help her achieve it.
First she split with her boyfriend in Ohio. She had dropped out of high school, moved in with him at 16 and gotten pregnant at 18. When he proved unreliable, Ms. Siler realized she was trapped: She couldn't drive and had no way to further her education.
One day she tracked down her boyfriend at a buddy's house.
"I told his friend, 'Put him on the phone,' and he said, 'He's not coming to the phone.' And I said, 'Well, you tell him his family's gone.' "
She moved to the City Heights public housing complex in Covington. When her children started at Ninth District School, she went, too, studying for her General Education Development diploma.
Social workers at Welcome House recruited her for their Job START program when she stopped by to pick up diapers.
"I just wanted to get off my butt and get my life together, let my kids know that you can do it - and how hard it is if you quit school," says Ms. Siler, 28.
Kentucky's social service network has been more helpful than Ohio's, she says. Public housing is readily available south of the river, and social workers are friendlier, she says.
Still, she wishes she had a better place to live. The City Heights apartments are awkwardly laid out - hers is three narrow stories of tiny rooms - and the tile floor is rough on children prone to falls. Ms. Siler has baby monitors in each room. Otherwise she'd never hear the kids crying.
Every afternoon she heads for the bus stop to gather up her brood. Once everyone is home, the usual sort of chaos reigns. Cheerfully and patiently, Ms. Siler referees arguments, helps with homework, holds the baby in one arm and pours juice with the other.
"When I finally get into that bed is when I think, 'How in the world did I get through that day?' "
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