A 45-year-old single mother raising her two teenage daughters and living in Santa Cruz, CA.
Interviewer: Okay, the first one is about household support by which they mean: How do you maintain your household support on a day-to-day basis? Describe the resources you use to make the household run and how you supervise the children, including any assistance from outside your circle of family and friends.
Author: Sometimes I go out to the pantry—certain times. When I’m low, they have times they are open.
Interviewer: Okay, and how do you pay the rent.
Author: Well this last time, I got my check—it didn’t come on time—so I was stuck from AFDC [Aid for Families with Dependent Children]. The eligibility worker mentioned that it was because of the elections, and so, I always pay my rent on time and I was really devastated—really upset, you know—and I called and let her know and that’s when she came out and said, ‘well it’s got to do with the elections.’ I was like, okay. So in the meantime, what do I do? So I had to call a church to see if they would help me. So they helped with my rent and they helped me with my PG&E [Pacific Gas and Electric] because I got shut off, at the same time, because my bill was not paid at the same time.
Interviewer: Is that your church?
Author: No.
Interviewer: So they helped you. Did you have to pay them back?
Author: No, I didn’t have to pay them back. I guess it’s like a tax deductible thing but, just the whole thing of going through it, you know I mean it was just hard.
Interviewer: So you have received from pantry sometimes, church this one time, is there other place that funds come to you and the kids?
Author: Maybe when Christmas comes around or Thanksgiving. I don’t get anything from anyone else—maybe resource places.
Interviewer: Okay, we covered everything—the resources you use in running the house, food on the table, paying the bills, and paying the rent—oh, how much time do you have to supervise the girls?
Author: Uh—well, I’m pretty much home unless I have to go to the doctor, chiropractor, you know here.
Interviewer: But your home full-time?
Author: Yeah.
Interviewer: Other resources that help you to parent your children?
Author: Well, I come here.
Interviewer: —And any assistance you receive from outside your circle of family and friends? Is there any subsidized childcare or Section 8?
Author: No childcare. I have HUD [Housing and Urban Development] and housing authority. That’s two different things. And right now, we have something going on in the complex because our contract ended, so there is big thing on the housing right now, you know, if they are even going to do it again or what, you know, we had to go through all these meetings so see if we are going to get housing, you know.
Interviewer: So they might stop doing housing?
Author: It’s just not happening where I’m living. It’s having [happening] at all the other complexes too. Yeah, so it makes it hard and stressful and that’s the only stable place I’ve been with my kids since my ex-husband and I split up, so—.
[Ed. This next question was asked following Section 2, Child Well-Being].
Interviewer: I never asked you compared to two years ago supporting my household is much harder, harder, unchanged, easier, or much easier.
Author: A lot harder, even with low-income—[we] struggle [to] makes ends meat, you know, it’s like, it’s not easy.
Compared to two years ago, supporting my household today is much harder.
Interviewer: Speaking of children, this is one is on the well-being of your children—how are your children doing in terms of their physical health, their safety, and their academics and school behavior?
Author: Uh, they are actually doing pretty good in school, I guess, I know one of them is hearing impaired, and the fourteen year-old—and she gets services through school.
Interviewer: What kind of services?
Author: Umm, like they’ll pull her out of class and work with her. And then Sabina, she has a tutor that she sees on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you know, it is to help her out with Spanish, I think it is, yeah. I mean she struggles in school, and then they have their jobs on the side too, you know, so they go to school and work, come home, do homework.
Interviewer: I know you told me they have part-time jobs, tell me again.
Author: It’s through the youth services.
Interviewer: Oh yeah, youth services, part-time jobs, training course.
Author: Yeah.
Interviewer: And they work how many hours a week?
Author: Uh, they are only allowed 10 hours a week, it’s like two hours everyday.
Interviewer: And they get job skills, um so their physical health is pretty good except, um, your younger daughter has hearing problems, but otherwise they are physically good shape, pretty much.
Author: Yeah.
Interviewer: Do you have Medi-Cal?
Author: Yeah, we have…[unintelligible].
Interviewer: All have…[unintelligible]. Umm, how about their safety?
Author: Safety. It’s a lot different then it was before—a lot more violence now.
Interviewer: These days?
Author: Yeah. I know one of my daughters gotten threatened before at school. Yeah.
Interviewer: Really, once, more than once?
Author: Yeah, more than once. It’s a different, it’s a different society now, you know—a lot more stressful.
Interviewer: Did the school do anything about it?
Author: Luckily they have a—police on the campus—security now, you know.
Interviewer: Is she in high school?
Author: She’s in high school. Belinda—she’s okay.
Interviewer: Is she in junior high?
Author: Middle school.
Interviewer: Academic performance. Sabina has a tutor but she doesn’t do well in school.
Author: She’s the one that kinda, she struggles a little bit—same with Belinda, they struggle a little bit, you know—but otherwise they are okay with, you know, their grades and stuff.
Interviewer: How about their behavior and friends?
Author: Behavior, uh—sometime they’ll come home and they’ll have attitude—uh, depends on how the day is.
Interviewer: Towards you or in school, or both?
Author: It could be both, work—you know, school, me, either.
Interviewer: There is something I forgot to ask you in this last one I’ll have to go back, but compared to two years ago, the general well-being of my children is much worse, worse, unchanged, better, or much better?
Author: I guess it’s gotten worse.
Compared to two years ago, the general well-being of my children is worse.
Interviewer: This one is basic needs—how well is your household meeting it’s basic needs describe things that affect your family’s ability to meets these basic needs, including adequacy of earned income, public benefits you may use, I suppose that’s AFDC, Medicaid, food stamps, SSI and help with other basic needs that other people may provide, I assume that may be family, church, whatever. So how well is your family, the three of you, meeting it’s basic needs for food, clothing, housing, medical care, education?
Author: It’s hard, it’s not easy being a single parent and trying to raise two teenage daughters. And the way kids [are] nowadays, they want things, you know—and you can’t—. I didn’t think that they want, you know, then they try to compete like with other kids in school, ‘they wearing Nikes, they’re wearing this, they’re wearing that,’ it’s like, I’m sorry but I have to tell [my kids] I don’t have the money to do this, I don’t have the money to do that. And it hurts, you know. But at times they can be understanding and it’s sometimes like they’ll give me a hard time about it, you know.
Interviewer: Are there anythings that help your family in meeting those?
Author: For instance, more than able to buy them school clothes, uh, their dad’s a flake—no child support. Umm, he’ll tell them he’s going to do things for them which he doesn’t come through—you know, so he only bought them, maybe a couple of pairs of pants—you know, to get them started, and tops and then every month that goes by I’ll buy a top, you know a couple of things, you know, uh—but when she started her job they helped her get some school clothes—$150.00 worth of school clothes.
Interviewer: Really, what program was that through?
Author: It was through the careerworks, I guess.
Interviewer: Just Sabina.
Author: I guess, it’s Workforce, or something like that, that’s what it’s called. But Belinda called in to see if she could get help and they told her no. They’d help her out with a bus pass, but right now they can’t help her with clothes and she’s the one that really needs them.
Interviewer: Any others you can think of? Is there things that interfere with making ends meet? One thing you said is that kids wanting more things, is there anything else you can think of?
Author: Like for instance, like me with my medical, like [I] can’t work.
Interviewer: Well, you can’t work, if you have medical problems and can’t work. Alright, so now we are back to the question about all of them. Compared to two years ago, my family’s ability to meet its basic needs is much worse, worse, unchanged, better, much better.
Author: I think it’s gotten worse.
Compared to two years ago, my family’s ability to meet its basic needs is worse.
Interviewer: Housing—how well is your housing meeting your family’s needs? Describe how well it fits the size of your family, the three of you its physical condition, the safety of the neighborhood, and how convenient it is for work, school, child care and for visiting relatives.
Author: It’s an apartment, a two-bedroom apartment. Uh, it’s not too good because the girls always having fighting, disagreements and they like their own space. They share a bedroom. Sometimes Belinda sleeps with me. Or they’ll both sleep with me.
Interviewer: Is it in pretty good shape or run down or?
Author: I guess, you would say that the apartments that we live in for being low-income, those are the ones that are taken care, the best. So we are lucky on that, except that, we have too many inspections and it’s just a pain in the butt, having all those inspections.
Interviewer: How long do they come?
Author: They come a lot.
Interviewer: Once a month?
Author: Mmm, they come more than that. It depends, but during the wintertime they don’t bug you. You know, they don’t bug you during the wintertime, mostly it’s like starting in March all the way through the summertime up until it gets cold again.
Interviewer: Is your neighborhood safe?
Author: Is it safe? At times it’s not. There’s a lot of vandalism—you know people breaking into cars. One time, there was at least 10 cars that got broken in, all at one time. No security—uh.
Interviewer: Was yours broken into?
Author: No, [it] has an alarm on it, thank god.
Interviewer: Did you say it was convenient to the kids’ school?
Author: Well, for one of them it’s convenient, and for the other one it’s all the way from Main all the way to [the] high school. So that’s way out there. I drive both of them to school everyday.
Interviewer: How long have you lived there?
Author: Maybe about 10, 12 years I think.
Interviewer: Compared to two years ago, your housing is much worse, worse, unchanged, better, much better?
Author: I guess worse.
Compared to two years ago, my housing is worse.
Interviewer: Emotional well-being. What feelings have you been experiencing the most lately? Describe how this, these feelings, influences your work and parenting, and whether you have sought help for any of these feelings.
Author: Anxious, anxiety, uh—sometimes feeling like I can’t do enough.
Interviewer: And how do those feelings influence your parenting?
Author: I get depressed about it. It’s hard being a single parent, trying to raise your kids, living off of assistance, you know. Having medical problems and not being able to provide things that your kids want—you know. But I mean I try the best I can.
Interviewer: What medical problems are you having?
Author: Right now, I’m having problem with my knee. A couple of bones are split in there. Ah, I am having problem with my neck. They want do surgery on both of them, but I want the orthopedics, and I have a problem with my arms. On medical, I haven’t been to good and right now I’m waiting like to see if they are going to help me with disability.
Interviewer: Have you sought help for any of these feelings.
Author: Counseling, friends, family.
Interviewer: Compared to two years ago, your emotional well-being is much worse, worse, unchanged, better, much better?
Author: Much worse.
Compared to two years ago, my emotional well-being is much worse.
Interviewer: Okay, employment. Tell us about your current or last job. Describe the type of job, whether the wages, benefits, and hours are/were sufficient, and what kinds of training and advancement opportunities there are/were, if any.
Author: I worked in a restaurant. It was a taqueria, [as a] cashier.
Interviewer: When was that, how long?
Author: Five or six years ago.
Interviewer: What were the wages at that time.
Author: Something like $5.35 an hour, something like that, it wasn’t very much. And I know when you get AFDC your food stamps are cut down. So the more you make, the less you get in your food stamps. I think it’s every three dollars for—one dollar or something like that—three dollars of your food stamps.
Interviewer: For every dollar you make?
Author: For every dollar you make, it couldn’t. Instead of getting ahead—your not getting ahead.
Interviewer: That was the wages, were there any benefits?
Author: No.
Interviewer: What were the hours?
Author: I think I was just working 20 hours, 20 hours a week I think. It varied—you know.
Interviewer: And was there any training or advancement opportunity?
Author: No. They closed down. I wasn’t there very long—maybe three, four months at the most, I think I worked there.
Interviewer: Okay, compared to two years ago, the wages and benefits of the job I have now are much worse, worse, unchanged, better, or much better. Well now you stay home so it does not apply.
Compared to two years ago, the wages and benefits of the job I have now are: scale does not apply to me.
7. BASIC FACTS
Your community or neighborhood of residence: Santa Cruz
Gender: Female
Last year of school completed: 11th grade
GED: No
Race: Hispanic
Ethnicity: Hispanic—Texas
Manner in which story was originally given: Tape recorded