A look at a Lancaster single mother of five's quest to avoid homelessness

LANCASTER, Calif. (KABC) -- For Lancaster woman Taniqua Taylor, her struggle is to survive enough to avoid being homeless once again -- a nightmare she experienced a few years ago.

Taylor shared her struggle of being a single parent, having five children and doing everything possible to succeed in life and then hitting barriers, barriers such as having to move out of an apartment with a family member after being told there were too many people in the home.

From there, she lived in a truck with her children.

"I would find a place with lighting in Apple Park and the hotel parking lots because I felt like it was the safest place," she cried.

Taylor finally moved into section 8 housing, earned a GED and enrolled in college to become a teacher.

"I came from a broken home. I had nobody to look at and say, 'This is who I want to be like,'" Taylor shared.

She's employed, working for the Palmdale School District. Life came together until it began falling apart when she got a 60-day eviction notice demanding she be out by August.

Taylor said Sunset Ridge Management Company told her the apartment complex no longer accepts section 8 tenants.

"My greatest fear is me and my children actually being on the streets with nowhere to go," she said.

Skirting the edges of homelessness is a griping reality for more and more families. In the Antelope Valley, the number of homeless families has increased 66% within the last year.

In hopes of helping Taylor avoid the streets, Eyewitness News put in a call to L.A. Family Housing. We talked to Kris Freed, who said the first thing she plans on doing is work with their partners with neighborhood legal services to help with mitigating any potential evictions with participants who've experienced homelessness or who are currently in housing.

Taylor said no matter what happens, she will fight to succeed for herself and her children.

"My goal is to break the cycle, not repeat it," Taylor said.

Eyewitness News reached out to Sunset Ridge Management but did not receive a response.