Homeless in Auburn: Leanna, 31, working to escape generational poverty
AUBURN — Leanna Nares has only been homeless a few months of her life. But she's spent all of it living in the kind of poverty that can lead to homelessness with startling ease.
Leanna, 31, a native of Moravia who now lives in Cayuga with her two children, Aurora and Elliot, has never lived in a home owned by her — or her family. For her, that poverty is generational.
A rented four-bedroom house was Leanna's home until she was 10, when her parents got divorced. Her mother left for Auburn, so her father was evicted. In the years that followed, they went from a three-bedroom house to a two-bedroom apartment to a one-bedroom trailer in Locke. As soon as Leanna graduated from Moravia High School, she got a job so her parents wouldn't have to support her.
"I never had anyone to help me, and then I had to help them. So it's been really hard to get ahead," she told The Citizen.
Leanna was studying at Cayuga Community College in hopes of becoming an English teacher when she had Aurora. A single mother, she went from part-time to full-time at Wegmans so she could take care of her daughter. But her grades started to fall, and she dropped out. Then her mother got evicted from her apartment, so Leanna got a second job to raise $2,000 for her to get a new one.
By then, Leanna was living in Auburn. She was always working one job, often two and sometimes three. But she still had to move a dozen times over the next decade because she couldn't afford rent.
"When things go awry, there wasn't anywhere to go back to," she said. "A lot of people face hardships, but when you don't have any kind of family to help, that's where homelessness can happen."
Leanna found some stability after entering a long-term relationship and having her second child, Elliot. The four moved into a rented house in Union Springs. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, her mental health suffered. Those problems culminated in a June 2022 domestic incident with her partner that led to her arrest for menacing and other charges. Shortly afterward, he left her.
The incident made Leanna realize she needed help. She's been going to Cayuga Counseling Services for dialectical behavioral therapy ever since. Many others there are homeless, she said.
"Along with homelessness, there's usually mental problems," she said. "When I was talking to my therapist she said, 'You've never had stable housing in your whole life.' Because even when I was with my kids' dad, a lot of times I stayed because I knew that I didn't have the money to go somewhere. That affects your mental health, your ability to keep your job and how you are as a parent."
While she was getting help, Leanna was having more problems at home. Without a second income she was unable to pay rent despite working 60 to 80 hours a week, and even operating her own cleaning business on the side. She named it High as the Sky Cleaning Services, which is how much she tells Aurora she loves her. Leanna could also bring her daughter along, avoiding costly child care.
In August 2023, Leanna was evicted for the first time in her life. That made getting a new place even harder than it already was thanks to the competitiveness of the market and soaring rents .
"It's like you're branded," she said of having an eviction in her history. "No matter how hard I worked, I couldn't get out."
She was homeless now. Elliot stayed with his father and Aurora stayed with Leanna's mother in Auburn while she went back and forth between them and a storage unit, making sure they were bathed, clothed and fed. Elliot began going to Casey Park Elementary, but she wanted Aurora to continue going to A.J. Smith Elementary in Union Springs. So she drove her daughter there every day.
During those few months Leanna would often sleep in her car, awoken by knocks on the window from police officers. Or she stayed with friends, who helped watch her children as well.
"Part of the culture of being homeless and not having family is you meet people. They take you in," she said. "I've been lucky to meet some nice people."
That November, Leanna found her apartment in Cayuga. A new job at Auburn Community Hospital has made it more affordable. Rent is still 50% of her income, but not 80% like it was before. That made her part of the 4.1% of people in the U.S. known as "the working poor." And because she works full-time, she said, she's mostly been ineligible for public assistance outside of some SNAP benefits.
Leanna hopes that's in the past — and that she can break the generational cycle of poverty that she's been working to escape all her life.
"I do worry about my kids," she said. "If I can't help them when they're 18, what is that going to look like?"
Executive Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or .
Executive editor
