LOS ANGELES — When her phone rang in February, Mashawn Cross was skeptical of the gentle voice offering help at the end of the line.
"You said you do what? And you're with who?" the 52-year-old recalled saying.
Cross, who wasn't working because of her ailing back and knees, was scraping by on roughly $200 a month in aid plus whatever she could make from recycling bottles and cans. Her gas and electric bills were chewing up her checks. She had been in and out of the emergency room, her doctor said she might have to get a colostomy bag, and depression was bedeviling her day by day.
