Catalina
Catalina, a single mother of two, took a $10,000-a-year pay cut to make ends meet. Catalina, who has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island, worked as a human services specialist at the Department of Social Services interviewing applicants for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Family Program.
After a relationship with her daughter’s father ended and she moved to Greenville, she discovered that her salary was not enough to pay for childcare for the toddler, an after-school program for her then 12-year-old son, transportation to work, and a place to live, yet was too high to qualify for government assistance.
Data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition that is published in the annual Out of Reach shows that the 2021 housing wage for a one-bedroom in the Greenville, Mauldin, Easley area is $15.88 per hour. The 2021 annual income required to afford a one bedroom is $30,040 which is creating more people who experience homelessness or housing insecurity as well as a wider gap between available funds to stabilize households and the income required for self-sufficiency. This varies by household and can be explored by county in the United Way of South Carolina Self Sufficiency Standard. For Catalina, housing plus other related expenses for her family equals an annual income of $47,826 in 2020.
She and her two children found themselves homeless.
United Ministries’ Interfaith Hospitality Network provided the family with emergency shelter through a network of local congregations that host homeless families with children for a week at a time. The program is the only collection of emergency shelters in Greenville for homeless single mothers with sons who are age 10 or older. Catalina and her children moved into transitional housing, but soon realized she would have to find employment that paid significantly more to be self-sufficient or take a job that paid less to qualify for stabilization funds.
She decided to take a job as a teacher’s aide at a Greenville County School and was able to qualify for housing assistance. Essentially, Catalina needed to reduce her salary to find housing in order to exit homelessness.
Her career change is buying some time. Catalina wants to find a job that allows her to provide for her children—and enables her to ‘graduate’ from funds that stabilized her family.
Approaching a predicament like Catalina’s is systemic and complicated—which is why it takes an alliance of more than 120 partners to educate, advocate, collaborate, and innovate—and to see real change happen.