According to IMDB: Allie and her older half-sister were adopted by her grandmother in 1988 because her mother was in an unstable condition and hence unable to take care of her own children. However, her grandmother was eventually evicted from her own home due to financial problems, so Stephanie wound up living with her biological father in a Flint mobile home park in 1996. Unfortunately, her father's issues with alcoholism undermined his ability to be a proper parent and thus necessitated Allie being put in foster care. She spent time in six different foster homes and ran away from at least two of them. She was eventually placed in a state institution that she subsequently ran away from.