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Mother's sign keeps a roof over kids' heads
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- Armed with a sign, a sunburned Patricia Karen Gebby launched her fourth offensive from one of St. Petersburg's busiest intersections. "Working Mother Need Help With Rent to Stop Eviction," the bold red lettering on white poster board pleaded with Monday afternoon's rush hour drivers at the corner of 66th Street and 22nd Avenue N. Mrs. Gebby's first 10 minutes on the street's edge with her children nearby brought lots of curious stares and only a paltry $2, that from a sympathetic female passer-by. But the mother of four young children -- Logan, 7, Chase, 6, Dalton, 3, and Summer, 14 months -- was not discouraged. It was the fourth day in a row that she had taken the desperate walk from the AMC theaters parking lot to the street. Her tally after two-hour stints on Friday, Saturday and Sunday was more than $500, two job offers and two propositions that can only be called indecent. She took the cash, pooled it with money of her own and deposited it with the court to stave off eviction. "The generosity was overwhelming," said Mrs. Gebby, who says she earns $6.75 an hour at One Stop Auto Parts. Saturday, a man who appeared to be in his mid 60s stopped and asked, "You in a hard place?" Before she could answer, he handed her a $100 bill and, without waiting to be thanked, returned to his gold-colored truck. Vickie Knight, her husband, Kevin, mother, Florence Webb, and daughter, Kimberly, 7, also spotted Mrs. Gebby last weekend. At Kimberly's urging, the family had turned back to give her money. "Kimberly was really touched. She said, 'Turn around and go back,' " Mrs. Knight said. Mrs. Gebby, 42, said she has dreams of a college education and a stable life for her children. "I have a lot of friends and several people say, you've got a lot of guts to stand out there," she said. "I say, how much guts does it take to stand and hold a sign for my kids?" She vows to return to the intersection every day until she raises the money needed to stay the eviction altogether. That will take $611 to pay her landlord's attorney's fees and $500 for July's rent, she said. Last year, the Sheriff's Office served 6,548 eviction notices throughout the county, most of them at residences. Monday, before loading Logan and Chase and a Doberman called Serena into her old blue and white van, Mrs. Gebby tried to recount how her life had reached this point. "I struggle all the time," she said, sitting on one of two mismatched hand-me-down couches in the faded white two-bedroom house she rents on First Avenue S. Outside the door stood a rusty table with remnants of an unsuccessful garage sale. "I don't have anything to sell," she said. "Nobody wants to buy my junk." But the baby's swing brought $5. "I had a previous landlord on this same property, and he would always bear with me," she said. "I was habitually late, but I would always get him paid." This is her second eviction notice from the new landlord. "It's not their fault, although they could be a little more understanding," she said, adding that the first time she managed to raise the money to stop the eviction. "And I didn't stand on the corner to do it. . . . But this time I wasn't able." Rick Faloski of Management Realty Services, which manages the property Mrs. Gebby rents, is pragmatic. "She has been evicted formally twice since March. I can't help it if she doesn't have any money. It's one story after another. She's got more problems than hair on my head," Faloski said. "She hasn't paid May's rent, and we let her stay after she was evicted in April," he said. The payment Mrs. Gebby made to the court this week covered the rent for May and June, Faloski said. First married at 16, Mrs. Gebby, who refers to cigarettes as her only vice, also is the mother of an adult son. He does not live with her. Before 1992, she had been arrested several times on charges of writing bad checks, but has had no trouble with the law since. She and her present husband, the father of her four youngest children, had been evicted several times. It was after one of those evictions that he was arrested for possession of a firearm, Mrs. Gebby said. He recently was released from prison and is living with friends, she added. In the past, Mrs. Gebby has received financial help from her father, who lives in Ohio. He is too ill now to provide similar assistance, she said. Her mother, a waitress in Panama City, also is not in a position to help. "I've called friends, family. Nobody has any money," she said. As bad as things are for her, Mrs. Gebby said she knows it's worse for others. She had a friend who had to move into a shelter with her children, she said. At least she can give her children an occasional treat, said Mrs. Gebby, who receives $379 a month in food stamps, $90 in welfare payments and subsidized child care. "When I get paid, I buy them a Happy Meal, and they love it. They get their little toy. There's moms out there who can't go out and get their child a Happy Meal. I'm grateful for what I have," she said. Sister Rosemarie Infinito, director of Daystar Life Center, a small downtown agency that assists thousands of people each year, said she has noticed an increase in the number ofhomeless people over the past year. "Most have been laid off. They've been evicted. They've paid just enough on their rent to keep them going, and after several months their landlord says, no more, and they want full payment and they can't come up with full payment," she said. This past year has been especially difficult for many families, because of higher gas and electricity bills, Sister Rosemarie said. Daystar is able to provide some assistance. "We write checks to the landlord and we do work with landlords to get extensions," Sister Rosemarie said. "We would call the landlord to advocate for the client, especially for the children." Diann Kurtz, director of We Help at the St. Petersburg Free Clinic and vice president of the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless, said a recent survey indicated that there are at least 1,802 homeless in Pinellas County. Of that number, 119 were parents with 298 children. Advocates for the homeless believe that the overall count is higher, said Ms. Kurtz, explaining that only those who sought help at community food kitchens on the day of the survey were counted. "That doesn't count the folks that are sleeping on someone's sofa or that are moving from friend to friend to friend," she said. Like Daystar, the Free Clinic also has had to help more people in recent months. "What we have seen in our program here is an increase of families who are coming in for services," Ms. Kurtz said. "People with very large mortgages, rents, utility and electric bills. Many of them are working and are unable to keep up with them, and there aren't the support services there were. Many of them are not receiving food stamps, child care and health insurance." In St. Petersburg, she said, the Free Clinic, Salvation Army, Daystar and Pinellas Opportunity Council are among the agencies that provide assistance to people in Mrs. Gebby's predicament. Monday afternoon, clamping a blue floppy hat on her head against the blazing sun, the mother walked purposefully to the corner near Tyrone Mall. As she made her way to her post, she turned, a determined but embarrassed look on her face, and said, "This is the hardest part." - Staff writer Kris Hundley and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
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