Feeling the squeeze: For many families, wages aren't keeping up with cost of living

from the Missoulian

By MURPHY WOODHOUSE of the Missoulian

Luke and Jennifer St. Claire arrived in Missoula in July of 2005, drawn cross-country from Rockville, Md., by the promise of open spaces.

They liked the city as soon as they pulled in and, feeling they had found a good place to raise their growing family, decided to call it home.

Luke, a North Dakota native, is a union bricklayer so wasn't worried about finding work to support his family.

“Usually, I can find work wherever there's bricklaying going on,” he said.

Union wages for bricklayers run from $22.50 to $24.50 in Montana, he said, considerably better than the $11.31 an hour considered a “living wage” in Missoula.

Luke, Jennifer and their 13-year-old daughter Sarah rented an apartment for the first year. But with the birth of their twin boys, Joshua and Matthew, in March 2006 and a new pregnancy shortly thereafter, the family realized they would need more space and privacy than the apartment could provide.

Feeling pressure to find a home quickly, the St. Claires got a subprime loan and moved into a modest home on the south side of Missoula.

A year and a half later, that mortgage, as well as rising food, fuel and utility costs, are squeezing the family and making ends harder and harder to meet.

According to Jennifer, their mortgage payments are slated to go up by $400 a month in February 2008 - to $1,800.

“We haven't a clue where that extra money is going to come from,” she said. “We're hoping to refinance or sell.”

With milk approaching $5 a gallon and gas not far behind, Jennifer found herself at the Missoula Food Bank for the first time several weeks ago - despite the fact that Luke's wage is nearly three times as high as the $8.64 an hour the average Missoula Food Bank client earns.

“We're just making enough to pay the bills,” she said. “Every dime is spoken for.”

Her husband's work takes him across the state and fuel costs add up quickly. He recently started sleeping in his van to save motel costs. He spent most of this past year working jobs outside of Missoula and away from his family.

“We miss him terribly,” Jennifer said.

“I have to ask myself every week, ‘Is it worth it?' ” Luke said.

And all the while, the costs of keeping the kids fed, clothed and warm add up and up.

“The basic staples just shouldn't be that expensive,” Jennifer said.

The St. Claires, along with thousands of other families in Montana, are facing one of the cold truths of the state's economy: As life gets more expensive, wages are not keeping pace.

According to the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations, a Seattle-based advocacy group, Montanans' cost of living went up 20.8 percent between 2002 and 2006, while wages increased by 11.2 percent.

The real picture is probably even bleaker. According to the Economic Policy Institute, most of the recent wage increases have gone to the nation's top earners.

The St. Claires are just one of the most recent additions to the growing ranks of “food insecure” families in Missoula and across the state.

According to a new report from the Montana Food Bank Network, between 1999 and 2006 the number of visits to the 189 distribution agencies in the network nearly doubled, from 363,537 visits to 708,073.

Those increases were paralleled here in Missoula.

In 2000, Missoula Food Bank was visited 27,446 times. By 2006, that figure was up to 41,375. The 12,519 individuals served by those visits represent roughly 12 percent of Missoula County's population.

Joseph Degele, who works as an $18-an-hour framer for Dam Construction, is the family's breadwinner, while his wife Kristina, who is taking online business courses from the University of Phoenix, stays at home and takes care of their two children, Alexis, 3, and Damian, 1.

According to the new Montana Food Bank Network report, the Degeles are like many food insecure families. After interviewing 301 clients at seven food banks across the state, the study found that roughly half of all food insecure households have one adult working - and nearly 60 percent have children.

Like Luke St. Claire, Joseph Degele pulls in a decent wage, but the family's basic needs speak for nearly all of it.

According to Joseph, rent for their apartment, the monthly truck payment, and insurance and gas for the truck are where the family feels the biggest squeeze.

After the necessities are met, the family must stretch the rest of each paycheck for their children's clothing, diapers and other “extras.”

“After we do all our bills, we end up with about $200 left over,” Joseph said. “It goes quick.”

“Tiny things just make it harder,” Kristina said. “They're outgrowing all of their clothes.”

Even when times are tight, the Degeles try to keep their visits to the food bank to a minimum - maybe once every three to four months.

“I don't like to do it because there are so many other people that need it,” Joseph said.

“I don't think we would go down there if it weren't for the kids,” Kristina said.

Unlike the St. Claires, but like many other food bank clients, Joseph and Kristina are without reliable health insurance.

According to the recent study, a majority of food bank visitors have some form of private or governmental coverage, but many are on their own when a family member gets ill or injured.

“It's hard,” Kristina said. “I get scared.”

The kids are covered by Medicaid and, while he's on the job, Joseph is covered by workers compensation, but even with that, an injury could spell disaster for the family.

“He's given me a couple scares,” Kristina said.

Among those were two poorly aimed nail-gun shots, one of which went through one of his hands.

Because of the family's history of poor to nonexistent health insurance, the Degeles are shouldering about $9,000 in debt, much of it medical. One of the biggest chunks is the nearly $3,000 they owe to Bozeman Deaconess Hospital for the birth of Alexis.

Medical debt is a hurdle for many food insecure families. According to the food bank study, about 64 percent of food bank clients have unpaid medical bills, and medical expenses are one of the most commonly cited barriers to food security.

With the little money left over at the end of each month, the Degeles chip away at their debt when they can.

“Money always goes faster than it comes,” Kristina said.

Brenda Pearce, a full-time dental assistant at Partnership Health Center, refuses to roll the dice for herself and her 11-year-old son Brandon by going without health insurance.

“I choose for my future,” she said.

It hasn't been an easy decision, however.

The price tag for that health insurance, as well as the life insurance, retirement plan and disability insurance she also refuses to go without, runs about $300 every two-week pay period, leaving her with roughly $750 in take-home pay.

Being insured has meant having to make cuts elsewhere in the family's budget, and often the food budget suffers.

“As soon as I get paid, I pay bills,” she said. “We're usually broke a couple days after payday.”

Many other food bank clients find themselves having to make similar tough calls. According to the recent statewide study, 38.9 percent of clients reported having to choose between food and rent, 38.2 percent between food and medicine, and 51.4 percent between food and utilities.

Because of a $50 wage garnishment that just started being taken from her paycheck for one of her several debts, Brenda had to choose between rent and utilities last month.

“Do I pay my bills or my rent?” she asked. “Which is more important?”

With the first day of winter just around the corner, times are going to get tighter for Brenda and Brandon.

In addition to the $600 monthly rent for their home, Brenda said heating bills can reach $250 on the coldest months - and are already well past $100.

“It goes right through the roof,” she said.

Because Brenda makes a decent wage, $13.40 an hour, she doesn't qualify for food stamps and other federal programs, even though she has to regularly turn to the food bank when ends don't meet.

“I don't qualify for assistance because they go off gross wages,” she said. “I'm just over the cutoff.”

Besides the family's daily and monthly expenses, Brenda has a number of debts hanging over her head, mostly payday loans, student loans and debts accrued during her past marriage.

“I'm paying creditors from over 20 years ago,” she said.

According to Brenda, one of those debts, a $350 veterinary bill she got after her greyhound was hit by a car, has ballooned to $900 with interest over two years. It is probably going to result in another wage garnishment soon.

It won't be easy, but Brenda is hoping to be debt-free by 2009 and stay that way for as long as possible.

“If I'm debt-free for six months, then I qualify for home loans,” she said. “I want to buy some land.”

While 47 percent of households served by Montana food banks have at least one adult working, the rest don't. More often than not, however, families aren't in that situation by choice.

According to the Montana Food Bank Network study, 26.7 percent of urban households without an employed adult have a member actively seeking employment. Nearly 56 percent don't, because of disability or poor health.

Alisa Watson is in the latter group.

On Oct. 10, 2002, Alisa was patrolling her Great Falls neighborhood as a Neighborhood Watch volunteer.

There had been a spate of random drive-by robberies in the area and Alisa saw the car in question on her patrol and started writing down the license plate number.

As she did so, the driver hit Alisa twice with the car, leaving her with two sprained ankles, two sprained knees, injured lower lumbar vertebrae and neck problems.

According to Alisa, her car insurance covered most of the medical bills and six months of physical therapy, but the accident, as well as the fibromyalgia discovered during her treatment, left her unable to keep the three jobs she had been working to support her two teenage children.

Then, shortly after the accident, her son was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

“This all hit right at once,” she said.

After the diagnosis, Alisa saw a silver lining in the accident.

“Well, God said I'd need to be home to take care of my son, so I got hit by that car,” she said.

With Alisa and her son unable to work, the family relied on food stamps, assisted housing, the Great Falls Community Food Bank and Alisa's $3,800 in savings. They scraped by for almost four years.

When times started to get tight, daughter Angela went to live with her father, making things a little easier for Alisa.

To be closer to Alisa's own father in Victor, Alisa and her son moved to Missoula in May of 2006. Shortly before leaving, her son started collecting about $700 a month in Social Security disability benefits.

For the past year and a half, those $700 and food stamps have been the family's only source of income. Monthly trips to the Missoula Food Bank have helped keep food on the table.

Working with Vocational Rehabilitation, Alisa recently found a part-time job with Western Mental Health that accommodated her health condition. The job fell through, however, after a kidney stone prevented Alisa from starting work.

Alisa is still looking for work with Vocational Rehabilitation, but for now she and her son are back to their tenuous square one.

“If anything comes up other than regular living expenses, we're screwed,” she said.

Aaron Brock, Missoula Food Bank's development director, said the food bank has adapted to the steady increase in demand in recent years.

“We only exist because the community has said that feeding the hungry is a priority,” he said. “As the needs have risen, so has the generosity of the community.”

While providing an important and reliable safety net for the food insecure, Brock stressed that the food bank does little to address the underlying causes of hunger.

“We're not solving the problem,” he said. “The problem is that they're not being paid enough and they don't have health insurance. That points to a greater problem than the one food banks were designed to solve.”

Gerald Smith, a researcher at the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations, said access to federal assistance programs, such as food stamps, is a key part of the solution to food insecurity in Montana and across the country.

“With most public programs, it's not only making them available, but making sure that people can access them,” he said.

In addition, Kate Bradford, the Montana Food Bank Network's public policy director, said changes in eligibility criteria would be an important step forward.

According to the report, food insecurity can be a problem for households all the way up to 185 percent of the poverty line, while food stamp eligibility ends at 130 percent of poverty.

“One of the things we'd love to see is food stamp eligibility go up to 185 percent,” she said.

While seeing federal food programs as a critical part of increasing food security, she emphasized that they are designed to supplement food budgets, not address the poverty that created the problem in the first place.

Bradford said the rising cost of living and stagnating wages are the most important barriers to food security, and until those problems are addressed Montana families, like the Degeles, Pearces, Watsons and St. Claires, are going to continue to have trouble making ends meet.