The Edge of Poverty: A family’s balancing act

from the San Luis Obispo Tribune

Tonya Strickland

Emily and Leif Brekke beamed at one another on a recent date night at San Luis Obispo’s Farmers Market.

Inexpensive activities such as going there or to the park or enjoying their coveted every-other-week Starbucks coffees are a refuge from the relentless pressure of scraping by.

After paying their monthly bills, the Grover Beach couple comes up short each month. Though they have satellite television, cell phones and are happy for the most part, they are not living extravagantly.

With no savings for the unplanned, they had to take out a loan from family when their two cars recently broke down, for example.

“Sometimes we sit down with the budget and just cry,” 26-year-old Emily Brekke said.

The Brekkes are like many San Luis Obispo County families living on the edge, said Phyllis Braiotta, family support services manager with the Economic Opportunity Commission of San Luis Obispo County Inc.

Households use paychecks to cover the necessities—rent, utilities, food and gas—but they are forced to play a balancing game to cover everything, Braiotta said.

“Making all the pieces fit with what you’ve got coming in—that’s what really is hard,” she said.

With a 2-year-old daughter and seven months pregnant, Emily Brekke said the family’s limited income requires tedious planning. She strictly budgets, down to the dollar.

“There’s no room for error,” she said. “We literally make less than what we have to spend to live.”

The cost of living

Leif Brekke earns $2,020 per month as an office assistant at the California Men’s Colony but takes home $1,700 after taxes, health care premiums and union dues.

His wife’s $700 federal Supplemental Security Income increases that income, plus he earns $300 from weekend painting work.

Even with Leif Brekke working six days a week and both cutting extras, their $2,700 combined income doesn’t cover the $925 rent for their two-bedroom apartment, a $740 food and toiletries allowance, $215 for utilities and $300 for gas. They also pay a few hundred dollars a month on loans, cell phones, car insurance and additional costs.

Instead, they go over $100 to $200 monthly and make up for it by taking it out of the food money or by extending their credit card debt.

While the Brekkes’ approximately $36,240 gross annual income is above the $21,200 federal Department of Health and Human Services poverty guideline for a family of four, it’s still not enough to live in San Luis Obispo County, said Jean Ross, executive director of the Sacramento-based nonprofit research group, the California Budget Project.

By that organization’s standards— which factor in health care, miscellaneous costs and taxes — a family like the Brekkes needs $53,327 a year to live modestly in the county.

The growing disparity between the haves and have-nots is cause for concern, said county Supervisor Bruce Gibson.

“There are the retirement folks who are fairly well off,” he said, “and then there are the others who are working service jobs just trying to make ends meet.”

As county officials face budget issues, Gibson said the board hasn’t yet looked for solutions to help the working poor specifically. But supervisors are eyeing bigger-picture concepts such as affordable housing, he said.

“There’s definitely the attraction of living here with all the tourist elements,” he said. “But we need to think about how the whole thing works for the people that live here.”

Health insurance

The Brekkes are willing to struggle, for now, because they say it’s worth having Leif Brekke in a career with health insurance.

Last summer, when the family decided to try for another baby, they were bringing in about $3,400 per month, combined, after taxes.

They took an approximately $700 a month pay cut in December 2007 when Leif Brekke left his painting job for the CMC position, which provides the health coverage his previous job didn’t.

Before, he qualified for Medi-Cal, the state’s insurance program. But they could not afford the high share of medical costs that some participants in that program must cover themselves.

“It was one of those bite-the-bullet- and-suffer-for-a-year situations, because it’s a better deal for him” and the family, Emily Brekke said.

Locally, about 17 percent of nonelderly residents, or 32,000 people, lacked health insurance in 2005, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The statewide average was about 20 percent.

Experts say a key reason the number of uninsured here remained steady between 2001 and 2005 is because the number of adults and children enrolled in public insurance programs, such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, increased by 46 percent, to 33,500 from 22,900.

Emily Brekke and her daughter are covered by Medi-Cal during the pregnancy. When the baby is born, the family will be reassessed and the children may cross over to Healthy Families, the state-aid insurance program for children.

She hopes the state and federal aid will last as long as possible because more people added to her husband’s health plan means less take-home pay.

Creating ways to save

To help make ends meet, families can look to nonprofit groups, public assistance programs and creative ways to lessen expenses, Braiotta said.

Emily Brekke receives food such as milk, cheese and bread from WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and maternity clothes from the San Luis Obispo-based nonprofit Alpha Pregnancy Counseling & Support.

She and her husband also clip coupons, buy secondhand goods, like a used freezer to store on-sale food in bulk.

Career moves for future pay increases are also in the couple’s thoughts.

Leif Brekke, who has attended general education courses, said earning a two-or four-year degree would help him reach personal goals and be eligible for higher-paying opportunities within CMC.

Right now, however, higher education is not an option because of course costs.

His wife, who attended some beauty school classes, could return to her previous career as a hair stylist but “she’s also enjoying being a mother right now and learning a great deal about herself,” Leif Brekke said. Besides, his wife said, day care costs would eliminate any salary she’d make if she were working.

Despite their struggles, the local family says the most important element is quality time with each other and their daughter.

“I think the biggest thing we’ve done as far as helping ourselves through this is just talking more and being honest,” Leif Brekke said, “and understanding that our money isn’t the deciding factor in our happiness.”