At the end of chapter one I started to wonder how the Conley's ended up in the projects and as I read through chapter two, I found out.  There had been a robbery at their previous tenement that the author's mom had actually witnessed.  After the police had arrived and apprehended the thief, he threatened to harm Ellen, Conley's mom, once he was released from jail.  So they started to look around for another apartment the family could afford, hence the reason they moved to the projects.  Dalton Conley's dad was a part time artist and full time gambler as he was addicted to the ponies.  His mom was a struggling author that had yet to be published which is why they qualified for the low income apartment.

Interestingly enough once the family moved into the apartment Ellen started to feel guilty for taking the apartment away from a more "deserving", or black family.  To abate these feelings she would tell the story of the burglary and the threat from the thief over so as to reassure herself that even though some of the consequences of the move were a bad school district and Dalton having to share his room with his mom's study, it was all worth it.