Pubdate: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2006 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Joseph P. Fried Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) Neediest Cases ILLNESSES FAIL TO DAMPEN A DRIVE FOR A BETTER LIFE Norma Millan speaks of the days when "I used to be active," and when her excursions through the city were a pleasure. "I used to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, one of my joys in summertime," said Ms. Millan, 52. "Now I can't walk two blocks without getting out of breath." She cited her many ailments: diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure. Nonetheless, for the last year, Ms. Millan has been journeying around the city despite her energy-sapping illnesses, panting her way up subway steps and often having to walk much more than two blocks to get to her destination. She lives in a homeless shelter in Harlem with her 15-year-old son, Keenan, and makes the trips in search of a decent and affordable apartment for them. Finding an apartment is her No. 1 priority, Ms. Millan said recently. Improving her health is second. She spoke of reminders of mortality; of her seven siblings, she said, three died of illness. A sister had a heart attack at 53, another sister died from a brain tumor at 41 and a brother died from AIDS at 39. Another brother, 44, has lung cancer. Ms. Millan told her story at the Pelham Fritz Apartments, a shelter for homeless families operated by the Children's Aid Society, one of seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. She and Keenan, the younger of her two sons, who is a student at Automotive High School in Brooklyn, have been living at the shelter since September of last year, after they and Luis, the brother who suffers from cancer, were evicted from their Brooklyn apartment, Ms. Millan said. They could no longer pay the rent, she said, after the landlord raised it beyond what her welfare payments enabled her to afford. She was on welfare because her illnesses kept her from working, she said, and Luis was neither working nor receiving welfare benefits. He is now living in a rehabilitation facility. Ms. Millan, who grew up in Brooklyn, said the eviction that left her homeless was not the first dire situation in her adult life. An earlier episode occurred in the 1980s, she said, when she was living in Lawrence, Mass., with her fiance, the father of her older son, Rafael, who is now 26. The man, who veered from low-wage jobs to unemployment, was often despondent and would "take it out on me," she said, telling of beatings he inflicted when he was drunk. She left him after they had been together for five years, she said. "I took Rafael and got on Amtrak and came back to New York." She began using heroin and cocaine at age 30, during the abusive relationship, she said, and became addicted. She said she conquered the addiction by going through a methadone-maintenance program after she returned to New York. Keenan was born after a shorter relationship with another man, she said, adding that Keenan has had no contact in recent years with his father, who does not contribute to his support. Ms. Millan, who is also being treated for depression and bipolar disorder, receives $398 a month in welfare payments and $150 a month in food stamps. Medicaid covers her and Keenan's medical expenses. She does not pay rent for their one-bedroom apartment at the shelter, which the nonprofit Children's Aid Society operates with city money. Ms. Millan sleeps in the living room. "I've been trying to get into public housing for 10 years," she said. But with low turnover and a long waiting list for such apartments, the city's Housing Authority gives priority to low-income people who have needs that it considers more urgent than those of people like Ms. Millan -- to current victims of domestic violence, for example, and people whose housing conditions directly threaten their lives because of their illnesses or disabilities. That is a category that Ms. Millan says she has not been placed in. Hence her trips to privately owned buildings. There was a long subway ride to the Rockaways in Queens, where, she said, the apartment turned out to be nine blocks from the subway station and thus unsuitable for her. Or shorter trips to apartments that were "like closets," and to apartments that were unaffordable because the rent was more than the welfare program's maximum rent payment, and her monthly cash benefit for other living expenses is too little to let her use part of it for additional rent, she said. Cathleen Clements, a spokeswoman for the Children's Aid Society, said the maximum rent that the welfare program currently paid for a two-person household seeking to move from a homeless shelter was $820 a month. Meanwhile, Ms. Millan has also had concerns unrelated to housing and health. When the school year started in September, she said, Keenan, who plays on Brooklyn Automotive's football team, was depressed by the condition of his off-the-field wardrobe. "He said, 'Mommy, I need clothes,' " she recalled, but she lacked the money to buy him any. So Judy Quinones, their social worker at the Children's Aid Society, tapped the Neediest Cases to buy $200 worth of Old Navy gift cards, which Ms. Millan said went for sneakers, slacks, a hooded sweatshirt and other items for Keenan. "When he got the clothes," she said, "he was very excited about it." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake