Journal Gazette: Homeless often have 1 change in their lives

ROSA SALTER RODRIGUEZ | The Journal Gazette

Tonya Doughty remembers keeping an awful secret while her youngest son was in a neonatal intensive care unit a few years ago.

She and four of her other children, staying at the Ronald McDonald House so she could be close to the baby, were actually homeless.

While suffering from pregnancy-induced high blood pressure that led her to have the baby 10 weeks early, Doughty also had lost the south-side Fort Wayne home where the family had been living.

A combination of circumstances while she was pregnant, including estrangement from the baby’s father, meant she couldn’t afford the rent.