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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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$70k to Food Bank in 2 Months
Quote:
View: From $70K to food bank, one family's struggle
Source: CNN
From $70K to food bank, one family's struggle
Story Highlights
Patricia Guerrero went from making $70,000 to drawing unemployment checks
Desperate to feed her kids, she recently went to a food bank for the first time
Expert says charities are reporting a rise in middle-class families at food banks
Guererro: "It just happened so fast. It happened in a matter of -- what -- two months"
By Thelma Gutierrez and Wayne Drash
CNN
ALTADENA, California (CNN) -- When she was laid off in February, Patricia Guerrero was making $70,000 a year. Weeks later, with bills piling up and in need of food for her family, this middle-class mother did something she never thought she would do: She went to a food bank.
It was Good Friday, and a woman helping her offered to pay her utility bill.
"It brought tears to my eyes, and I sat there and I cried. I was like, 'This is really where I'm at?' " she told CNN. "I go 'no way;' [but] this is true. This is reality. This is the stuff you see on TV. It was hard. It was very hard."
Guerrero is estranged from her husband and raising her two young children. She's already burned through her savings to help make ends meet, and is drawing unemployment checks. She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $2,500 a month. In fact, her mother moved in with her to help pay the bills.
Guerrero even applied for food stamps, but was denied.Watch Guerrero describe going to food bank »
"I never used the system. I've been working since I was 15-and-a-half. I needed it now and it turned me down," she said.
Stories like Guerrero's are becoming more common as middle-class Americans feel the pinch of an economic downturn, rising gas prices and a housing crunch, especially in a state like California that has been rocked by foreclosures.
On Wednesday, a key government report on the battered housing market found new home sales fell to their lowest level in 13 years in February, suggesting the nation's housing market is still struggling.
Americans also have been attending in large numbers foreclosure fairs where mortgage lenders, financial planners and counselors offer tips to hard-hit homeowners.
"Our economy is struggling, and families in the 'Inland Empire' and across the nation are hurting," California Rep. Joe Baca said, referring to an area of Southern California in his district.
"Our housing market is in a state of crisis due to rampant abuses of sub-prime lending, and unemployment is rising. At the same time, the cost of necessities such as gas, healthcare, and education continue to rise."Map: Foreclosures state-by-state »
Daryl Brock, the executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank in California's San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said his organization supplies food to more than 400 charities in metro Los Angeles, from homeless shelters to soup kitchens to an array of food banks. While the majority of people they help are working poor families, he said they have seen some major changes.
In the last 12 to 18 months, Brock said, the agencies he supplies have begun seeing more middle-class families coming to their doors.
"Our agencies have said there is an increasing number of people coming to them for help," Brock told CNN by phone. "Their impression was that these were not people they normally would have seen before. They seemed to be better dressed. They seemed to have better cars and yet they seemed to be in crisis mode."
He added, "The only thing they can do is give us anecdotal evidence that they think it's because of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and the housing crisis." See recent trends of foreclosure filings »
A former loan processor, Guerrero knows all about that, although so far she has been able keep her house.
She used her tax refund to help pay many of her bills for the first two months, but now that money's gone.
She says she's now in a middle-class "no-man's-land."
"It just happened so fast. It happened in a matter of -- what -- two months," she said.
She's eager to get back to work and to hold onto her home until the market turns. But for this single mom, every day it becomes harder to hang on.
"It's just depressing," she said. "For me, I just don't want to get out of bed, but I have to. That's my hardest thing. I have to."
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My heart goes out to this woman and her family, and to other families that are getting hit hard. I can only say that 2 months of savings is never enough. NEVER ENOUGH. I grew up hearing 6 months of savings, I planned for 12 months of savings. I hear financial analysts as they describe it as "in a post 9/11 world 24 months of savings." It sounds like she was pretty much living paycheck to paycheck.
For us it wasn't easy to save money, especially as we saw our friends all spending their earnings and then some. I was even laid off like 4 times in a row, I took odd jobs here and there, nothing was below me, but not everyone would hire me or even call me back. I tried McDonald's. I even talked to managers and would guarantee them months to no avail.
We used the tried and true method of living and saving: spend less than we make, save a percentage every month. Even after we wiped out our accounts to buy a home, we put 20% down as required by our cooperative. Even if we were not required it was the tried and true method of buying a home, 20% down to avoid PMI. Interest only loans? Why take the gamble and the risk? Patience is the name of this game.
Even though we have savings, I already have a game plan to diminish expenses and expenditures if the economy is starting to turn. I don't wish to get caught with my pants down.
How are you preparing?
We have a thread here about the apocolypse where we are discussing an imaginary thing. But this is a real threat for some, for others it may not be too far away like this woman just took a couple of months.
We can disconnect cable TV and just keep internet service, even though we like shows, it's just not something we need. We have plenty of DVDs to watch (over 600 and many of them still sealed.) savings: $100/mo
I've been skipping full meals, eating cheaper salads and fruit. It is better for my health and I'm getting myself used to a change in diet so that it's not sudden. $150/mo
Our car is ready to be sold at a moment's notice. We live in a city with good public transportation and we can walk to work if that expense needs to be cut too. $400/mo
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