Do I have an amen?

James Ragland wrote yesterday about Atrevia Washington, a Dallas Housing Authority tenant whose apartment burned in 2005. DHA is trying to collect $10,000 from Atrevia -- the cost of the insurance deductible. Atrevia is refusing to pay the money, and DHA is threatening to evict her.

Atrevia, an unmarried mother, is pictured with three of her four children -- A'teria Lowe, 9 months; Terrance Lowe, 5; and T'Kiryn Washington, 3. The Fire Department report says the fire was started by a burning candle in the brand new apartment. Atrevia says, "I can't really say my kids didn't do it because I wasn't there, and you never know what kids do when you're not around." My first question: if you weren't there, who was with the children?

Mr. Ragland says it strikes him as odd that the agency would go to Atrevia for repayment when she's in subsidized housing for a reason: "She's poor, a single mother of four living off $740 a month in Social Security and supplemental income. She also gets $430 a month in food stamps." My second question: why aren't you getting child support from the fathers of these children? As my all-time hero, Judge Judy, says, "When you make a baby, you have to support it! It's your responsibility, not mine!" Which leads to my third question: why do you have four children? Did you not learn after the first what caused it?

Ragland ends his column by questioning how strapping someone with a debt will benefit DHA or the tenant. "Something needs to change," he states. Amen to that, Brother!