A little help up

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- The Goodmans know they’ve made some mistakes.

The biggest one Sarah, 23 -- wife to Chad, 27, and mother to Kaely, 3,

and Jacob, 6 months -- can remember is that she dropped out of high

school two weeks before graduation.

Chad Goodman regrets that he gave up a secure job in sales and took on

contract gigs as a graphic designer and maintenance worker.

Money had been tight for a while at the Goodman’s home in West

Newport’s Seacliffe Mobile Park. Then Chad injured his back, and the

couple’s income no longer covered the $885 monthly rent. A three-day

eviction notice followed, and the Goodmans finally decided to go looking

for help.

The organization they turned to was Friends in Service to Humanity, or

F.I.S.H., a nonprofit Newport Beach-based group that helps needy people

to get back on their feet.

“Catching people before they become homeless” is F.I.S.H.’s motto.

Through mobile meals programs, food donations and help with rent payments

and child care, among other things, the organization has helped residents

all over Orange County since 1968.

While most clients still come from Costa Mesa’s poorer neighborhoods,

F.I.S.H also helps Newport Beach residents, who often try to hide

financial problems from their affluent neighbors.

And it’s often more difficult for formerly well-to-do people to

contact the organization, said Debby O’Connor, F.I.S.H.’s executive

director.

“They very often live next to people that they don’t want to know”

about their problems, she said. “It’s harder for people to really break

down and call.”

O’Connor said she remembered a businessman who lost almost everything

after suffering a heart attack. Self-employed, the man had no disability

insurance and faced eviction from his apartment before F.I.S.H. stepped

in to help, she said.

Another case involved a physician whose business manager had driven

the practice into financial ruin. The man’s wife was forced to sell the

couple’s Mercedes to get by, O’Connor said.

“You just never know when something goes wrong,” she said.

The Goodmans didn’t fall into the same category. There was no luxury

car to be sold to pay for rent and food. But Sarah Goodman said she knows

the difficulties of living in a mostly affluent city.

“When I take Kaely to preschool, I’m shabbily dressed and our car is

not an SUV,” she said. “When you say you’re from Newport Beach, people do

automatically think that you have money. Agencies automatically assume

that you don’t need money. I’m sure that there are a lot of people in

Newport Beach that are just as bad off as we, or worse than us.”

Leaving F.I.S.H.’s modest office, which is crammed between bike racks

and bus garages at Ensign Intermediate School on Irvine Avenue, O’Connor

crossed town this week to pay the Goodmans a visit and discuss their

situation.

Like many of their neighbors, the family had set up Christmas

decorations, a white tree outside and a more traditional one in the

living room. The sliding doors and windows of their mobile home were

covered with seasonal stickers. One of the door panels, Kaely’s own

Christmas drawings, was taped to the glass -- a Santa Claus, a candy

stick and a sign that reads: “Santa stop here.”

Sitting down on the dining room table, O’Connor and the couple began

to figure out how much money the family would need to get by.

There were the monthly rent payments and utilities. The Goodmans said

they didn’t go out much, maybe just for fast food on special-offer days.

Chad Goodman said he knew his pack-a-day smoking habit cut into their

wallets.

Apart from rent, food and credit card payments, the couple said they

spent little money and still fell $500 to $600 short every month.

But O’Connor had good news.

“By the way, you have been adopted for Christmas,” she said. “So you

don’t have to worry about that.”

After adding up expenditures, O’Connor told the couple about the

organization’s Respect program, which subsidizes rent payments and helps

people get back on their feet.

But O’Connor added that the couple would have to meet some conditions.

Chad would need to find a steady job when his injuries healed, and Sarah

would have to go back to school and get a general equivalency diploma, as

well as take on some extra baby-sitting work.

The Goodmans agreed, adding after O’Connor had left that the

organization’s offer was just what they had needed.

“This is just more like a little cushion for people who have current

problems,” Sarah said. “Which is us.”

“It’s totally saving us,” Chad added.

A day later, O’Connor seemed pleased with what the couple had done to

meet F.I.S.H.’s requirements for help. The organization had already cut a

check to pay for the December rent, and the Goodmans had called O’Connor

to tell her things were progressing, she said.

Sarah has “looked into getting word out that she can baby-sit,” said

O’Connor, adding that Chad had received his doctor’s approval to go back

to work. “They said that they were going to call colleges. It sounds good

to me that they are following through. . . . If everything’s going the

way it’s going now, we’ll go right ahead and sign the paperwork in

January to get them on the Respect program.”

FYI

To make a donation to Friends in Service to Humanity or to learn more

about programs for needy families, call (949) 642-6060.