Paycheck to paycheck gets harder and harder

Montgomery County’s advantages come with a high price for some

Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo David S. Spence⁄The Gazette Linard Bonner, a security officer for a private contractor in Washington, D.C., prepares for work one October morning by ironing his clothes in his Burtonsville apartment, which he shares with his wife and three children.

Like many workers with financial difficulties, Bonner, a Fairland resident, might skip one utility bill cycle rather than cut the family’s food budget, or set the thermostat lower and take cold showers to save on heating costs.

However, the hardest choices are those involving his three children. Bonner, normally stoic about his own sacrifices, cannot hold back his tears as he talks about those of his children.

‘‘I haven’t been able to buy [my eldest son] any clothes this year,” he said recently. ‘‘If I buy him a pair of sneakers, I’ll think I could have paid [a] bill with that money — I haven’t been able to buy my kids anything special since Christmas.” The family passes a children’s theme restaurant every day, but Bonner can only afford to take them there when he has a few dollars to spare, most recently in the summer.

Treats and creature comforts are not the only things his family goes without, however. Although he works as a federal security guard, Bonner chooses to go without health insurance because the money is more urgently needed for food. He shops at low-price supermarkets and dollar stores to save money for the three essentials in his budget: apartment rent, car payments and groceries.

Bonner’s situation is typical for many families in Montgomery County who live from paycheck to paycheck. With the cost of self-sufficient living in the county higher than other nearby jurisdictions, Bonner’s annual salary, between $30,000 and $40,000, is not enough to support a family of five.

And Bonner is not alone. Starting teachers and county police officers in Montgomery County make about $40,000, and they and other households throughout the county face economic pressure. It is these households that are the most vulnerable to unexpected expenses, which can break their budgets.

Families are vulnerable

For Bonner, things became difficult after the birth of his third child when his wife, the family’s second wage-earner, started to stay at home to take care of the children.

‘‘My wife had a job before her pregnancy,” Bonner said. ‘‘...Her check was able to pay a couple of our bills ... that was a real help.”

When a parent chooses to stay at home full-time, it eliminates the cost of professional child care, which Bonner cannot afford. However, doing so makes the family ineligible for certain child care assistance programs, and also removes that care-giving parent from the work force.

Area social agencies say the kind of people they help are less likely to be single adults in financial distress and are more often entire families who can’t make ends meet. Most often, these families do not fit the stereotype of poverty, according to Tom Hucker, executive director for advocacy group Progressive Maryland.

‘‘There’s a misperception that poverty only affects people out of work,” he said. ‘‘The vast majority in poverty are working families who are just one or two paychecks away from catastrophe.”

Part of this is because the cost of living has risen, but incomes have not kept up, and in some cases have actually gone down, Hucker said.

‘‘Over the last three years, the median income has fallen, so families are working harder than ever, with nothing to show for it,” he said. ‘‘Wages are down, and costs are up, especially for health care ... more people are having to choose between health insurance and paying utilities and putting food on the table.”

Montgomery County has sought to address this imbalance, and now all companies contracting for the county must pay their employees a minimum hourly wage of $10.50 — well above the federal and state minimum of $5.15 per hour. The county pay was deemed the minimum amount for a family of three to count as self-sufficient, meaning they can provide for their own expenses without needing food stamps.

Depending on the number of children supported, that wage still might not be enough, according to the publication ‘‘The Self-Sufficiency Standard for the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area 2005,” a study produced for Wider Opportunities for Women by the University of Washington with funding from the Freddie Mac Foundation.

In the study, the minimum hourly wage needed to raise a two-parent family with one preschool-age and one school-age child was $15.31 ($32,000 per year) for each adult parent. This represents a marked increase from 2001, when each adult in a two-parent family of four needed to earn $13.37 per hour ($28,000 per year).

Even families making more than the county’s proposed minimum can be hard pressed. When Bonner arrived in Montgomery County a year and a half ago, he had more than $10,000 in savings. Today, he no longer even has a savings account.

Bonner is looking to supplement his ‘‘day” job, which starts at 4 p.m. and can end as late as 2 a.m. the following morning, with a second job as a crossing guard with Montgomery County Public Schools. The new job would require him to be up and active by 7 a.m., but it would pay between $20,000 and $30,000 yearly. He is also considering saving on fuel by taking the Metro to and from work instead of driving his car — paying $200 for transit instead of $220 for gasoline for a month. When his car needs work, he can rely on the help of a family friend to save on the cost of labor and parts.

Unexpected expenses

Some families have few satisfactory alternatives to driving. The Bailey family of four rents an apartment in the Greencastle area, and the loss of the family’s car was crippling, said the family’s mother, who asked that her first name not be used.

‘‘Our car was just repossessed because we couldn’t keep up with the $438 monthly payments,” Bailey said. The family now needs to pay $2,230 just to get the car back, after which the monthly payments would resume.

At the height of her family’s fortunes, Bailey was earning between $1,000 and $1,500 every two weeks with a health insurance company, and her husband could bring home between $500 and $1,000.

After the birth of her son two years ago, Bailey suffered health problems associated with childbirth. When her company would not assist with child care costs and work schedules, she resigned. Her health care costs piled up rapidly, without insurance from her job, and because of her condition, she was not allowed to drive. Medication costs for were daunting – sometimes as much as $257 for a month’s supply.

Finally, her husband was fired from his job because he took too many days off driving his wife to and from hospital visits, Bailey said.

Her husband has had to turn down several job offers, because he has no way of getting to work on time. The closest job offer, at a furniture store in Beltsville, still required him to start work at 5 a.m., before the county’s bus service could get him there.

The lack of a car also means Bailey can no longer shop at the discount stores she frequented in the past. These days, when she shops at supermarkets, she compares store brands and clips coupons. Food stamps also help her save about $300 in groceries each month, she said.

Bailey and Bonner both work with Beth Pollen, a case supervisor with Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, who gets them in contact with charities and also works with them on their applications for financial assistance.

When the family came to Montgomery County from New York City nine years ago, Bailey dreamed of living in her own house, but she feels no closer to her goal today. Her once-perfect credit score is much lower now, limiting her access to the housing market.

‘‘I feel we do have a better life,” she said. ‘‘But after being here for nine years, I feel we should be at a better position than what we’re at now.” The couple left New York to find a more suitable environment to raise their children, and Bailey said Montgomery County has provided the schools, parks and libraries that the Bronx could not — but at an expense she has struggled to afford.

‘‘Several, several times, there’s been the temptation to go back,” she said. ‘‘When my husband lost his job, I said, ‘All right, we’re leaving’ ... but he said we’ve faced this before, and we’re going to fight for the sake of our children to stay here — we do not want to raise our children in New York City.”

Getting help

Montgomery County’s soaring property values have increased the fees of rental properties: in September 1997, a two-room, two-bath apartment cost the Bailey family $695 per month — the same apartment now costs $1,150 per month, and the family currently pays $1,300 for its three-room apartment.

Thanks to their church, the Baileys have another resource: the pastor and members at the Faithful and True Christian Center in Silver Spring recently contributed about $1,000 to help with bills and school supplies for the children. The church also gives moral support and comfort, both at a premium for those living on the edge of poverty, dealing with stress, anxiety, depression and a feeling of social ostracism. Bonner’s wife and Bailey’s husband declined to be interviewed for this article, and asked that their names not be used.

‘‘The state is taking care of my children’s health now, through Medicaid, which helps a great deal,” Bonner said. ‘‘But sometimes if you don’t have health insurance, doctors and nurses look at you differently ... the treatment is different.”

The emotional burden is greatest for those who have children in their care, and who don’t want them to share in adult concerns. When her daughter asks about having a birthday party, Bailey can only tell her ‘‘we’ll see.”

‘‘When you have children, it’s the hardest thing in the world,” she said. ‘‘It hurts, and I’ve cried so much ... you feel their innocence, they didn’t ask to be here, and you can’t provide for them.”

Bonner has two such birthdays coming up ahead of the Christmas season, and he has hopes of putting in overtime on weekends to save up for them.

He takes his children to county-maintained parks and libraries, but he still hopes to be able to buy them something more often.

‘‘My children love their mother and understand [her], but they can see other kids have new tennis shoes and clothes,” Bonner said. ‘‘But if I spend $20 on a gift, that’s $20 less I could have spent on my water and electric bills.”

Other county-funded assistance is available, including financial help with rent and high utility costs ahead of a cold winter, but according to Bonner, it often takes several applications after many months to qualify. For some services, a court hearing is required to determine eligibility.

‘‘The housing lists are long, and the MPDU [moderately-priced dwelling units] lists are ... six to eight weeks, sometimes two or three months long,” he said. ‘‘If you’re looking for a house, the funding waiting list is over a year.”

For now, Bonner is hopeful for a slow financial recovery. In early October, his wife decided to look for work again and was accepted for a job in food service. The family’s income could rise to close to the 2005 self-sufficiency level, currently estimated at $64,666 for Montgomery County. Bonner also hopes to hear about his crossing guard application, which could also enhance the family income if approved. They still have no firm arrangements for child care, but will tackle that problem later.

‘‘We still have a lot of catching up to do, with mortgage and rent and bills,” he said, adding that he doesn’t expect to be fully squared away until February 2006. ‘‘But I don’t want to move my family. ... I feel secure and quiet here, I can leave home and my wife and children don’t feel scared.”