God Bless the Child

Theresa and her daughter Hillary live in a cramped inner-city apartment. The city announces the building will be torn down, and residents are given eviction notices. This looming displacement sets the stage for their struggle with housing instability.

Theresa clocks out early to search for a safer place to live for her and Hillary. She is fired the next day for leaving work early, a setback that intensifies their housing crisis. With income cut off and no secure home, they move closer to homelessness.

The pair move from homeless shelter to shelter, often sleeping on the streets. The constant hopping between temporary spaces shows how fragile their situation is. Basic necessities like food and safety become continual worries.

Theresa meets outreach worker Calvin Reed, who helps locate another place to stay while she pursues welfare aid. The arrangement provides a glimmer of stability, but the new home is filthy and infested with rats. Their temporary shelter underscores how hard-won any improvement can be.

Theresa and Hillary settle into their new home, and the neighboring Watkins family enters the story. The Watkins are a poor African-American family facing similar struggles, illustrating poverty's proximity in the same community. Their everyday life becomes a parallel narrative to Theresa and Hillary's own ordeal.

The Watkins family relies on welfare to survive, and the end of the month brings hunger as food stamps run out. The father, Raymond, abandoned them and does not provide support, deepening their hardship. The son's dream of graduating high school offers a spark of hope amid the struggle.

Theresa reports the state of her house and the rat infestation to the Department of Health, triggering a confrontation with her landlord. Shortly after, she is evicted from the housing due to the complaint. The eviction erodes whatever stability they had managed to gain.

Hillary contracts lead poisoning while living in the housing project, worsening her already fragile health as the eviction proceeds. The landlord's eviction after her health complaints adds to the sense that poverty exposes them to systemic neglect. Theresa and Hillary struggle to trace the source of the poisoning as they move between shelters.

At the local hospital, Hillary's doctor explains that recurrent lead poisoning could cause severe health and development problems. Theresa faces the reality that their unstable housing makes protecting Hillary's health extremely difficult. The medical warning underscores the stakes of their housing crisis.

Theresa consults Mr. Reed and concludes that the only way Hillary can live a healthy life is by being given up. She believes immediate abandonment is necessary to secure her daughter's safety and future. The decision weighs heavily as she confronts an impossible choice.

Theresa takes Hillary to the park and leaves her there for Mr. Reed to pick up. She gives Hillary a heart necklace and tells her to remember that she loves her. The act is presented as a desperate measure aimed at saving her daughter's future.

Mr. Reed and another social worker take Hillary away, and Theresa remains in the park, crying as Hillary's cries fade into the distance. The scene closes with Theresa alone, reflecting the human cost of poverty. The emotional weight underscores the film's social critique.

Before the credits, the film shows the statistic that 32.5 million people live in poverty in the United States, including 13 million children. The intertitle frames the narrative as a social issue rather than an isolated story. It invites viewers to consider the broader real-world implications of the characters' struggles.