A week after cashing their checks and paying most of the bills, Genifer and Roland are out of money again. She holds on to her ailing husband’s arm as he rests late in the afternoon, trying to sleep off one of the constant headaches caused by his brain conditon.

Story Summary: The First of the Month: A mother struggles to support her family far below the poverty line

Genifer Williams fled foster care at age 15, then spent a decade as a homeless drug-addict on the streets of San Francisco.

Eventually, she decided to try to build the kind of stable home she never had in her own childhood. Now 39, she feels lucky to share a one-bedroom Section 8 apartment with her husband Roland and their three kids, ages 10, 8 and 4. Roland has a genetic brain condition that leaves him with constant headaches and in fear of dying of an aneurysm.

Both Roland and Genifer are out of work. Like many of their neighbors in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, they survive on the disability and welfare checks that arrive on the first of the month. For one day, they have money. They pay utility bills, buy shampoo and toilet paper, chip away at their debts to the corner grocer and others who extend them credit at predatory interest rates.

Too soon, they’re broke again, forced to rely on food pantries, soup kitchens and clothing giveaways as they wait and watch the calendar, hoping that this month won’t last quite so long as the one before.