Daniel Rubin: A woman pinned in the rubble of Germantown Settlement's collapse

When Germantown Settlement collapsed - unable to pay its bills or document what it had done with tens of millions of dollars in funds - the walls fell on people like Francine Hailey-Ferrell.

One year ago today, she was working as an assistant truant officer, best job she ever had, even if she hadn't been paid since the previous March.

When the checks stopped coming from a division of the social-services agency called Northwest Education Development Corp., her colleagues dropped one by one, taking their case files with them.

But Hailey-Ferrell had worked for Settlement for four years and was used to waiting for her money.

She's kept her work e-mails - and they document a litany of excuses for the delays, such as "funders have not processed our invoices," or "wire transfers of funds did not occur."

It was always something.

But eventually the money would come through for her $11-an-hour job, and so for seven months she worked without pay - visiting the homes and schools of her clients, loving how kids on the street would recognize her, and call her "that truancy lady" with respect.

To make ends meet, she worked a second job, part-time at the Pathmark at Wayne and Chelten in Germantown, where she was a night clerk.

The arthritis in her left hand made it hard to hold a can. And that hand had to work for two, since she was born with a right arm that ends just below the elbow. But she kept working.

She needed to. She was helping out her son, Stephen Brantley, who was attending Morris College, the historically black school in Sumter, S.C. She's a single mom.

In March 2009, when paychecks from the nonprofit stopped altogether, the Brooklyn-born 48-year-old was current on her rent - $682 a month for a two-bedroom apartment at the corner of Germantown Avenue and Sharpnack Street.

Then she fell behind, even though she'd upped her hours at Pathmark to four nights a week.

"I'd work from 11 at night to 7 in the morning and be in court for my other job by 8," she says.

She caught a break from her landlord, Blakestone Limited Partnership, whose officials understood her predicament as well as anyone could.

For Blakestone is a part of Germantown Settlement.

Her job ended abruptly last September, after the city canceled its contracts with Germantown Settlement.

Soon after, Blakestone wanted its money. First came letters, saying she had to pay an extra $400 a month to make up for the seven months of rent she had missed when she wasn't getting paid.

Last month, her landlord told her she faced eviction.

Monday was Hailey-Ferrell's day in Philadelphia Municipal Court. Court records show she owed $8,538.50 for the seven months in 2009 as well as August and September of this year plus fees.

She showed up with her son, who is now 22 and works in the kitchen at Lincoln Financial Field, and she was represented by an attorney, J. Matthew Wolfe, who handled her case pro bono.

She brought a letter from Germantown Settlement, stating it had not paid her since March 2009. She also brought copies of a claim she had submitted to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Labor Law Compliance, for $13,168.82 owed by her employer.

She thought she had a case.

She had nothing.

Because Germantown Settlement is a web of dozens of organizations, the housing arm is legally separate from the social-services arm, she learned.

Her attorney said he could do little for her, other than cut a deal to keep her from being evicted, and help her with her claim in Harrisburg. She agreed to pay an extra $300 a month until her debt is paid, and left court in anger.

"I can't take but so much of this," she said. What bothered her most is that a representative of Settlement told her that her chances of getting her back wages were as about as good as those of her winning the lottery.

Maybe worse. The 126-year-old Germantown Settlement - part social-services agency, landlord, and community-development organization - owes $38 million to the city, state, and federal government as well as private lenders, plus vendors and employees.

That's a long line ahead of her.

Settlement's president, Emmanuel V. Freeman, is accused of failing to make $11,668.83 in payments to the state unemployment compensation fund. Freeman didn't respond to my repeated attempts to reach him.

Settlement's failure has left the neighborhood it sought to build with a shuttered charter school, boarded-up housing, empty stores, a crumbling YWCA, and people like Hailey-Ferrell, who still believe in its mission, if not its operators or enablers.

"My life was dedicated to the people I cared for. I couldn't just walk away. And to be taken advantage of this way . . ."

She let the thought hang in her living room and lit a cigarette to calm her nerves.

One more thing makes no sense to her. She pulled out the W2 form that the nonprofit sent her. It stated she made $25,926.03 in 2009. That would have been her salary - had she been paid those seven months.

She said she called the IRS to inform them the number was wrong. She was told to ask Germantown Settlement for the correct wage and tax statement.

When she did, she said, she was told that the form was right, since the money was going to come by the end of this year.

"It's what they always say," she said. "Just like they say in Annie. 'Tomorrow. Tomorrow.' "

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