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Lean times

More and more people are reaching for a buoy in an ever-rising sea of costs.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published August 6, 2006

	[Times photo: James Borchuck]
	Willie Philyor picks up 16 bags of food for residents of the Graham-Rogall Park public housing complex hear Tropicana Field. Daystar hands out 160 to 200 bags of government commodities the first Thursday of the month.

ST. PETERSBURG -- As gas prices, insurance costs and utility rates soar, agencies that assist the poor and those temporarily down on their luck say they're seeing a spike in requests for help.

An organization anchored by Christian and Jewish congregations says the situation is giving rise to a new trend. "One of the things we have noticed is that people can't afford to live on their own, to pay rent and utility bills, so people are doubling up to try and make it. So we are seeing larger households," said Jamia Austin, director of the Religious Community Services Food Bank in Clearwater, which supplies federal commodities to food pantries and soup kitchens throughout Pinellas County.

Agencies point to the last few months to illustrate the growing demand for assistance.

- On Tuesday morning, Daystar Life Center in downtown St. Petersburg opened its doors to a larger-than-normal crowd for the first of the month, when Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and other government checks usually are distributed. In the days that followed, the trend continued as increasing numbers of working poor sought help with utility bills, food and transportation.

- Almost 700 people turned to the Salvation Army in St. Petersburg for help with utilities in June. It was the first time the center had kept a record of such requests. The agency had money to help just 82 people. Altogether, it got more than 3,000 requests in June for a place to sleep, food to eat and money for rent, water and electric bills.

- The St. Petersburg Free Clinic says more people are turning up for medical and prescription help, as well as for assistance with rent, utilities and food. Like Daystar, recent days have been unusually busy. In July, inquiries about shelter at the clinic's 22-bed transitional residence for single women were "noticeably up." The clinic's Beacon House, which provides temporary housing for single men, also is open for dinner to anyone who needs to eat. In June, Beacon House served 2,152 evening meals.

For the needy, U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities are a welcome supplement. At Graham-Rogall Park, a public housing complex near Tropicana Field, residents eagerly formed lines Thursday morning to collect the monthly offering of government supplies. Plastic bags held a can each of chicken, unsweetened apple sauce, diced tomatoes, sliced peaches, diced pears, vegetarian vegetable soup, mixed fruit, concentrated cranberry juice cocktail and a bag of instant mashed potato flakes.

Joe Naga, 64, who is disabled, was pleased. "It's a great benefit, because the way prices are going, it's really hard to live," he said.

"The fruit I love. The potatoes I need," said Teresa Heath, 45, balancing her bag of food with the cane she uses to walk.

Jane Trocheck Walker, executive director of Daystar Life Center, which distributed the 16 pounds of USDA food at Graham-Rogall, said her agency also takes government food to three other downtown apartment complexes: Columbian, Lutheran Towers and MLF Towers. This month, she said, Daystar was able to add something extra, packages of ramen noodles donated from a food drive by St. Petersburg Catholic High School.

Walker said summertime is difficult for the working poor, but this year has been worse. The small agency, which offers help with food, utilities, clothing, transportation and other basic needs, saw 150 more people in July than in the same month a year ago, she said. One factor is that low-income workers often are laid off or given fewer hours during the summer, she said. Added to that, their children are home "and they're using more resources," Walker said.

There's the additional worry of preparing children for the new school year, she said, recollecting the words of a mother who tried to protect her children from embarrassment by keeping them from school "until everybody else's newness wears off."

Jane Egbert, executive director of the Free Clinic, said rising costs of transportation and utilities are making it difficult for many people to survive.

"It's very often just the difficulty of making the dollar stretch. People are working hard. They are trying to make the pieces work," she said.

While it can assist with water bills, the Free Clinic can't help with rent and electric bills, Egbert said. "We have been giving a great deal of food out," she said. "What happens is when people pay their bills, they pay their rent and they pay their electricity and their water and other necessities, there's very little left for the food."

Rhonda Abbott, director of social services at the Salvation Army, said the organization decided to begin counting requests for utility help when the number of calls seemed to skyrocket. "It was driven by gut," she said. "I kept hearing from our dear, dear people that it's going off the charts."

She said money to help pay electric bills comes from Progress Energy's energy neighbor fund, made up of donations from the utility's customers. In June, though, the Salvation Army could help only a tiny fraction of those who applied, Abbott said, adding that each applicant is allowed up to $150 once during a 12-month period.

"It's getting tougher for the average Joe to make ends meet, robbing Peter to pay Paul to keep their homes, to keep their children fed, to eke out some kind of living," she said.

"We're seeing an increasing number of people who make up the working poor population, folks who are working two, three jobs. ... It's hard, for I think you've got the poor population and maybe more lower-middle-income folks who are being affected by the cost of living in paradise."

[Last modified August 5, 2006, 19:36:50]