I rode the dark streets of the Pittsburgh community looking for a prostitute; it was around pm on a Saturday night in January. The forecast was for overnight temperatures to dip into the teens. I found Nicky on one of her usual corners, bundled up and smoking a cigarette.
I offered to drive her to the old Stewart Center building and put her up for the night. She sheepishly declined and said she needed to make money. Nicky was born in East Point Georgia to a single mom. She was raised by her grandparents and never knew her father. She bounced through childhood, attending at least six different schools before completing the 12 th grade, without graduating. At some point her grandmother kicked her out of the house.
In her twenties she worked at a salon and a security company, met the wrong guy, got involved with drugs, lost her job and then the apartment. In the next couple of months the Center will complete renovations on two homes in the Pittsburgh community of south Atlanta. The housing initiative is designed to provide families with quality, stable housing.
Among other criteria, families must have children in Stewart Center programing to qualify for one of our rental properties. As it so happens, Nicky is one of our neighbors. I had a great childhood; I grew up in a safe neighborhood and went to great schools, then off to college, work, graduate school, and finally the Stewart Center. Our paths could not have been more different, yet Nicky and I are working the same block in south Atlanta.
This November, Nicky will also turn 40 years old, meaning our lives have covered the same period of history. We were 9 when the Challenger exploded, we were 13 when the Gulf War began, and we were 24 on September 11, Nicky has been having sex for money for the past twelve years.
