If you really want to get a sense of what people are up against here, in Detroit, just spend some time with Cordette Grantling.
She lives in the heart of the city, and ekes out a living cleaning a medical office in the suburbs
For fifteen years, she says she survived off of temp work in the auto business. As it all began to dry up, she took assorted jobs.
Watch Cordette talk with Chris Hansen on Dateline
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Now, due to the recession, she says her hours have been cut back and it is making it even tougher.
That meager income isn’t enough to support her three kids – two boys and a baby girl. She says she doesn’t collect welfare, but she does benefit from food stamps and social security payments for one of her boys.
All three children were abandoned as infants by their parents. Cordette took them in. She has been rescuing children for twenty-five years.
Cordette’s story may represent both the heartbreak and the hope that is Detroit. This city’s future rests in part on how much someone like Cordette can accomplish.