Tiffany Hicks, her daughter Mariah Hicks, 7, her son Matthew Hicks, 9, and her partner, Carl Lindley, relax in their room at Mary's Place, a family shelter, on Monday, June 26, 2017, in Seattle, Washington.
The family moved from Lithia Springs, Georgia, in search of better opportunities. Here, Mariah, 7, at Mary's Place on Monday, June 26, 2017, in Seattle, Washington.
Tiffany, Matthew and Mariah laugh while taking selfies in their room at Mary's Place. The family is among many who have experienced homelessness in Seattle. During the 2017 Seattle and King County Point-In-Time count, 11,643 people were found to be living without a home in the city.
Mariah, 7, talks to her mom, Tiffany, from the window of their room at Mary's Place family shelter on Tuesday, July 25, 2017, in Seattle. "My son would tell me all the time, 'It's okay mom, we'll get past this. It's just temporary. God's got better for us," said Tiffany.
In January, Tiffany found out that she was pregnant with her third child, a boy. She knew the clock was ticking and felt even more pressure to find a place to live before the baby arrived in September.
Mariah walks in the water during her birthday party on Saturday, July 1, 2017, at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park. "We used to make it so they didn't have enough time to really think about the sadness of where we stayed at," Tiffany said. "We just kept busy, kept moving, and kept pressing toward where we wanted to go."
Tiffany and Mariah admire the newest addition to their family, Elijah Dayshawn Lindley, on Tuesday, August 29, 2017, at Swedish First Hill Birth Center in Seattle.
Tiffany Hicks places her hand on her son, Elijah, on Sunday, September 3, 2017, in their room at Mary's Place in Seattle.
Once they were back at Mary's Place, they went back and fourth about a potential new apartment in Auburn with their caseworkers and a landlord. "Where are we going to be? What's going to change for us? What's not going to change for us? It was all just hanging on a string," said Tiffany.
Tiffany Hicks signs a lease for a three bedroom apartment in Auburn in the parking lot of Seattle Chinese Alliance Church on Friday, September 15, 2017, in Beacon Hill. Sixteen days after leaving the hospital, they moved into their apartment.
Tiffany Hicks holds her son Elijah after arriving at their new apartment for the first time, on Friday, September 15, 2017, in Auburn. "I feel relieved. I feel like, thank god, we're finally here," Tiffany said. "Now it's just keeping it. Once you get a place it's the means to keep it. It just changes from one stress to another."
Matthew and Mariah walk into a field adjacent to their new apartment to play soccer, on Saturday, September 16, 2017, in Auburn. "I don't want to end back up there. I don't want to lose where I'm at. I don't want to go through all that again," said Tiffany.
Tiffany Hicks rode a Greyhound bus for four and a half days to get to Seattle. Her brother had recently moved here and said there were jobs. So Hicks left Lithia Springs, Georgia, alone to seek something better for her two children. "I had lost a job, lost a car, lost an apartment, and had to move in with my mom," said Hicks, 33. “We needed somewhere where we could start over that would actually make a difference." Eventually, Tiffany’s children Mariah and Matthew joined her, along with her partner Carl. In January, Tiffany found out that she was pregnant with her third child, a boy. She knew the clock was ticking and felt even more pressure to find a place to live before the baby arrived in September. The family is among many who have experienced homelessness in Seattle. During the year 2017 Seattle and King County Point-In-Time count, 11,643 people were found to be living without a home in the city.