She's kept her work e-mails - and they document a litany of excuses for the delays, such as "funders have not processed our invoices," or "wire transfers of funds did not occur."
It was always something.
But eventually the money would come through for her $11-an-hour job, and so for seven months she worked without pay - visiting the homes and schools of her clients, loving how kids on the street would recognize her, and call her "that truancy lady" with respect.
To make ends meet, she worked a second job, part-time at the Pathmark at Wayne and Chelten in Germantown, where she was a night clerk.
The arthritis in her left hand made it hard to hold a can. And that hand had to work for two, since she was born with a right arm that ends just below the elbow. But she kept working.
She needed to. She was helping out her son, Stephen Brantley, who was attending Morris College, the historically black school in Sumter, S.C. She's a single mom.
In March 2009, when paychecks from the nonprofit stopped altogether, the Brooklyn-born 48-year-old was current on her rent - $682 a month for a two-bedroom apartment at the corner of Germantown Avenue and Sharpnack Street.
Then she fell behind, even though she'd upped her hours at Pathmark to four nights a week.
"I'd work from 11 at night to 7 in the morning and be in court for my other job by 8," she says.
She caught a break from her landlord, Blakestone Limited Partnership, whose officials understood her predicament as well as anyone could.
For Blakestone is a part of Germantown Settlement.
Her job ended abruptly last September, after the city canceled its contracts with Germantown Settlement.
Soon after, Blakestone wanted its money. First came letters, saying she had to pay an extra $400 a month to make up for the seven months of rent she had missed when she wasn't getting paid.
