Nipped in the bud

BELGICA explains in Spanish why she is getting kicked out of the small two-bedroom apartment she shares with her two children in the Bronx, in New York City. Her husband was sent to Rikers Island jail in February, the same month that she lost her job at a local restaurant. She now owes nearly $5,000 in back rent, for which her landlord is hauling her to court. As Belgica tells her story, her hands rest uncomfortably on her swollen belly: her third child is due in a matter of days.