Hit-run survivor struggles to provide for family

In a hotel room that has become home to her family, a California mother wonders out loud about the driver who hit her and left her unconscious on a Fayette County road.

“I want him to know he didn’t just hurt me; he hurt my children, too,” Jonnie Moorer says, crying. “I’m just very upset and hurt about everything that’s happened.”

The accident left Moorer with limited mobility and little money to survive in a strange city.

Each year thousands of people, especially single mothers, find themselves in need of emergency assistance, said Kay Bernier, deputy director of HOPE Atlanta Programs of Travelers Aid, a nonprofit social service agency that provides a safety net for low-income travelers, newcomers and residents in crisis.

“Whether they get hit by a car, beat up, their job falls through or they end up in the hospital, oh my goodness, that’s a lot of people,” said Bernier. “We see thousands of them a year.”

The agency serves more than 15,000 people annually, Bernier said. “Atlanta is a place where a lot of people come for job opportunities, and when they get here and the opportunity falls through, they have nothing to go back to and they have nothing here,” she said.

The promise of a new job is what brought Moorer here. The 41-year-old single mother of two said she had an interview with a Peachtree City television station looking for someone to build a reality television show around.

Early on April 29, Moorer said she talked to the show’s producer, then headed back to her hotel room. The interview went well. She felt good. She planned to spend the next day in Miami with her daughters before returning to their home in Monterey, Calif.

Late that evening, Moorer left to get the three of them something to eat at a nearby Taco Mac. She’d paused in the median off Highway 74 in Peachtree City when a vehicle struck her, throwing her into the air and onto the hot pavement.

Moorer was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital. Her daughters, 15-year-old Jasmine and 16-year-old Jonntea, were forced into foster care.

Witnesses described the hit-and-run driver as “a middle-aged to older white male” driving a beige four-door sedan.

But nearly three months later, the incident is still under investigation, and there are no leads, said Capt. Rosanna Dove, of the Peachtree City police department.

Moorer suffered a broken right wrist and left ankle. Her injuries make it very difficult, if not impossible, to carry out the functions of daily life, including work, said Dr. Omar Danner, a Grady trauma surgeon. A full recovery could take up to six months, he said.

“Because her injuries are on opposite sides of the body,” Danner said, “she is more incapacitated than if both fractures had been on one side of the body.”

Jasmine and Jonntea were eventually released to Moorer’s elderly mother, who has since returned to her home in Ohio.

Moorer was released from the hospital in May and given a voucher to stay at a local hotel for one week.

That was more than three months ago. She continues to stay in a Chamblee hotel, despite not being able to pay.

Moorer said she would’ve returned to California if she had money or a support system there. Doctors here say she needs more therapy, and possibly, more surgery.

Now she’s worried she and her daughters may end up on the streets.

Before this, Moorer made a living cooking and decorating for other people. It wasn’t a perfect life, Moorer said, but her catering business was enough to provide food, clothing and shelter for the three of them.

Now she has to depend on others.

Her hospital bills have been paid by the Victim Assistance Program, and last week, she was finally awarded food stamps, she said. Her Social Security insurance and disability applications, however, are in a holding pattern. Calls to more than a dozen local churches have mostly gone unanswered.

The one church that did respond, Mount Ephraim Baptist Church, has only been able to provide moral support, said the Rev. James Whitely, coordinator of the church’s care ministry. Because of the economic downturn, Whitely said, the church has limited resources.

The sour economy has left most nonprofits struggling to help the needy, whose ranks are steadily increasing, said Bernier of HOPE.

“We’re seeing 40 to 60 families a day,” said Bernier. “That’s up from about 30 families a year ago, and that’s just in this office.”

HOPE runs eight other offices and nine apartments located throughout metropolitan Atlanta, including in Cobb, Gwinnett and Douglas counties. “For most people, this is the first time they’ve ever come close to being homeless,” said Bernier. “They don’t know where to go or what to do. It’s scary.”

Moorer is both scared and hopeful she will get the help she needs to get back on her feet. She hopes, too, that police will soon find the person who hit her.