Earn IS a fuck-up, or at least failing at adulthood.

When we first met him, he was staying at his baby mother's, not paying pay rent, turned away by his parents and even Alfred wasn't trying to mess with him at first. Also, jail.

Flash forward to now- STILL homeless, with a charge that has nothing to do with the shooting from the first episode?

Because of the kind of black dude Earn is, and because he's the protagonist, it's easy to gloss over, but he is a fuck-up, and his fears about ending up like his uncle are founded.