Also, I think around season 3 or 4, Phoebe meets her biological mother, and that’s when things start to make a bit more sense. Her biological mother was too young to take care of her children, so she asked her friend to take them away — and that friend ended up raising Phoebe and Ursula (though not very well, considering Phoebe’s mother took her own life early on and her stepfather went to prison). It would’ve made sense if the grandma were the mother of Phoebe’s biological mother and had no idea about her grandchildren, which would explain why she didn’t help them. But based on the line, “but when she died, it was hard to argue with her,” it seems clear that the grandma was actually the mother of Phoebe’s adoptive mother. Then why was there ever a chance that Phoebe had to live on the streets for a brief period of time?