KERA NEWS DIGITAL PROJECTS

Living with a mental illness can be daunting. Caring for someone on that journey comes with its own unique challenges.

Beyond lost wages, missed child support and probation fees, it's difficult to calculate the true cost of spending time behind bars. One thing is clear, though: For offenders and families already on the edge, incarceration can be financially devastating.

Since KERA launched One Crisis Away in 2013, the North Texas economy has seen tremendous gains. Many, though, have not shared in that success. Here are the stories of North Texans we’ve met throughout the five-year-long reporting project. They’re still working hard to get by, and in most cases, still living life on the financial edge.

North Texas schools on the “Improvement Required” list face mounting pressure to meet state standards.

Hurricane Harvey and the flooding that followed changed countless lives. Some lost loved ones. Others watched as water inundated their homes along the Texas Gulf Coast, washing away most of what they owned. Thousands of families took shelter in North Texas, Austin and San Antonio. Here are the stories of evacuees who decided to stay, and build a new life in a new town.

Five years ago, we met a group of North Texas eighth-graders from different schools with different lives.
As senior year winds down, we check in with members of the Class of 2017 before they graduate.

West Dallas has been on the financial edge for more than a century. Today, the neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying. High-end restaurants and apartments are crowding out rundown warehouses and weathered rent houses. Hundreds of families who've lived there for generations have been forced to move — many with no place to go.

Take a deep dive into how four different high schools in North Texas have changed over the decades.

On the day after Christmas in 2015, a dozen tornadoes ripped through North Texas, killing 13 people and damaging or destroying hundreds of homes. KERA has been following four families pushed to the financial edge by the storms. With the holidays approaching, we return to Rowlett and Garland to see how these families are rebuilding their lives a year after disaster.

Even as the economy improves, North Texans are struggling to stay financially afloat.

Life on the financial edge is never easy. During the holiday season, though, fiscal balance can seem next to impossible. Gifts, decorations, parties, travel, kids off from school — the challenges mount almost as quickly as the bills. Meet folks trying to keep their financial footing during the most trying time of the year.

In 2014, Americans watched from afar as the Ebola virus raged through West Africa, killing thousands and threatening millions. Until Sept. 30, when a Liberian man named Thomas Eric Duncan tested positive in a Dallas emergency room. Two nurses were infected before he died. Fear traveled faster, and far wider, than the virus. Explore what happened in Dallas – and the lessons hospitals and governments learned.

For many teens, graduating from high school is tough enough.

Try doing all that reading, homework and studying when you don’t have a place to live.

Meet some of these students in North Texas – and the people who are helping them out.

For kids a half-century ago, a cancer diagnosis was usually a death sentence. Today, eight of 10 children diagnosed with cancer will likely survive. Still, cancer can rob a kid of childhood. Follow the journey of one North Texas boy and his family.

The cost of living poor can be staggering: Racking up interest on a payday loan, working for minimum wage, paying fees to cash a check, and eating healthy when groceries are hard to find. Residents of Jubilee Park in a section of Old East Dallas south of Interstate 30 face these challenges every day -- challenges that the neighborhood is working to solve.

In Texas, one in three children has a parent who’s an immigrant -- or they're immigrants themselves. They have to learn a new language, adapt to a different culture and try to fit into a community that may not embrace newcomers. Follow these first-generation Texans and the educators weaving them into the American tapestry.

When an older person falls and breaks a hip, it’s a moment that changes everything. Not just for patients, but for their families, too.

Falls are the leading cause of injury death for older Americans. One of every five people who breaks a hip after age 50 dies within a year. For those who survive, it means a big life change.

It may mean leaving the home they’ve known for decades and moving into a nursing home or an assisted living facility. It may mean a role reversal: a parent who cared for children for so many years now is the one who needs help. It means tough conversations between patients and their families. It can also bring on financial challenges.

But there is hope.

One out of every three North Texans doesn't have enough money to weather a financial storm that lasts 90 days. It could be a medical emergency, an eviction, a job loss. It's called asset poverty.

Here are the stories of four North Texas families.