Catching up with the families

The parents in the four families featured in the Star-Telegram's working-poor series have been busy getting their children off to school. Classes began Monday. Money continues to remain tight, but they're getting by with help from readers and sympathetic people. Here's a quick update about their lives.

The Lockwoods

On Friday, the Lockwoods had planned to move into a three-bedroom rental house in southwest Arlington. They qualify for Section 8, a federal program that subsidizes housing costs, so they would pay about $400 a month in rent, according to Arlington Housing Authority officials. They would also have to pay any deposit.

The Arlington Life Shelter's Transitional Housing program had been paying the family's rent and utilities for the past two years. Moving out of the program will be a stretch for the Lockwoods, whose annual income is $29,804.

The housing deposit was one of the first hurdles the family had to clear. Edwina found a landlord who agreed to waive some of the $950 deposit if the Lockwoods made some repairs to the house. So the family spent every spare moment over the past several weeks getting it ready to meet a housing inspector's approval.

The house, however, didn't pass the necessary inspections. A Housing Authority worker promised to come back Tuesday to recheck a defective outlet, but the Lockwoods must move out of their apartment by early that morning.

The family is excited about the prospect of living in a house with a back yard. Still, if things don't work out by Tuesday, they could be shelling out more money to stay in a motel until they can move into the house.

The Rushings

Calls from Tarrant County residents interested in giving money or providing services to the family continue to trickle in. A high school student has been tutoring Terri Rushing's three children, ages, 11, and twins, 10, for free once a week after he read about the family in the Star-Telegram in July. The children grasp school material much better now, said Rushing, 49, of Grapevine.

They also received comforters for their beds from another reader.

"It has really been a good way to get them to clean their rooms," she said. "They are proud of it."

The Likas

On July 23, the 294th District Court in Van Zandt County awarded Vedat Lika permanent custody of his 5-year-old daughter, Madison. Madison went to live with her father in October after she was placed in foster care.

"I'm happy," said Lika, 52. "I knew things would work out."

On Monday, Madison and her half brother Arman, also 5, started kindergarten at the East Fort Worth Montessori School. Their father works at the school for the Tarrant Area Food Bank teaching cooking classes to low-income adults.

The Luevanos

Ofelia and Antonio Luevano have come closer to becoming the permanent guardians of the four Martinez children: Juan, 8, Fabian, 6, Juliette, 7, and Victor, 5. The couple took them in more than two years ago at the urging of the children's grandfather. On Aug. 3, representatives from Child Protective Services appeared in court on behalf of the Luevanos to get the necessary adoption papers for the Martinez children, Ofelia said.

Ofelia, 40, said that the court awarded her and her husband, Antonio, 38, temporary guardianship of the Martinez children, and that CPS is filing paperwork for the children to receive subsidized medical care and other state assistance. The children also have been assigned an attorney, Ofelia said. The Luevanos currently receive no money to help raise the children.

The couple has three other children living at home.

In the mornings, Ofelia drops all seven children off at school. A neighbor picks up Fabian and Victor, who get out of school at 2 p.m. The other children, who get out later, walk home with other neighborhood children, she said.

Outside of preparing for the new school year, Ofelia had a lot of celebrations for her children last month. Omar Luevano, Antonio Luevano, Victor Martinez and Juan Martinez all had birthdays in August, she said.

-- Compiled by Traci Shurley, Melissa Vargas, Elizabeth Campbell and Adrienne Nettles