As a person who has been around similar situations, for me either Alex's character was poorly written or the actress herself did a bad portrayalof the character.
She was selfish, too proud, weak, and insincere when being appreciative of the people who truly cared to help her.
She didn't know how to accept help or be grateful for it.
She had no depth to her, and always had an unmotivated blank stare at every pivital moment.
They didn't dig deep enough in to the back story of her dad's past.
Why did she always try to run away from him when he wasn't abusive with her, he turned into a Christian, was sober and had a good job/family, it didn't make sense why she didn't at least have a dialog with him after he made all those changes, she just acted scared of him all the time without basis for it.
A good mother, a person who truly knows how to love someone wouldn't have rather slept on the floor with her daughter then accept help, wouldn't have turned the car in the middle of the road to pick up a doll from the dollar store causing an unesesary accident, wouldn't have stayed in home with black mold and let her child cough night after night knowing the reason without taking her to the doctor immediately.
She could have got a job at McDonald's a store anywhere! She's a young white American woman in america, her possibilities are really limitless compared to others, it didn't make sense why she reduced herself to barely getting by and not having shifts all the time as a maid when she could have had so many other options.
I worked 2 full time jobs to keep my family afloat at that age.
Another issue I had was with her acting like a zombie, she had no meaningful emotional expressions, just blank stares all the time.
She could have called the cops when the tenants moved into her mother's house.
Best character in the show was the bipolar mom! All other actors were ok except for Alex!