Uh…my family well…they're a bunch of crack pots…I kinda pulled away from that situation… It's…ah…I mean you musta heard about it…I mean it's - it's nuts…He [my father] brought his girlfriend in to live with him and his wife… there was my mother, my father, my brother…ok that's who was living in the house. In come [the girlfriend] and her three kids…

In term s of Beth's husband's family, he has two parents still living and three brothers and one sister who are all married with families of their own and living in the area. When asked if his family gets together with the other members, Doug replies, "Once a year if they're lucky…Christmas time."

In general, the families' limited access to transportation and low level of education appear to narrow their social horizons. Without their own means of transportation or a good public transit system, they are largely restricted to participation in activities in their neighbourhood and thus their social contacts are limited. Further, at the time of the study, most of the participants did not have regular employment and therefore did not have work colleagues with whom to associate. Networks are not varied and they suffer a form of social exclusion. Andrea and Natalie have a strong friendship and rely heavily on each other. Natalie suffers from a mental illness and when she is not feeling well, Andrea takes care of her children; Natalie, in turn, offers to play hair stylist for Andrea, colouring her graying hair, cutting her children's hair, as well as helping them with treatment for head lice. She also has a role to safeguard Andrea's money from her abusive husband who has a gambling addiction.