Living in poverty
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on December 6, 2015 3:05 AM
Linda Walker, Sarah Taylor and Nellie Davis have lived in poverty their entire lives.
The three women, all in their 70s, live in Lincoln Homes, subsisting on an income that is barely above the federal poverty line.
Each of them worked for multiple decades in various industries, raised families of their own and each draws a retirement pension -- but it was not enough to lift them out of poverty.
Each woman still receives food stamps to survive, and each is a part of the more than 37 percent of Goldsboro citizens living on less than $25,000 per year.
Ms. Taylor, who is 73 and worked in the school system for roughly 40 years, receives $40 per month in food stamps on her EBT card. She worked for the school system for roughly two decades before retiring.
"They give me $40 a month for food stamps, and you know one person can't live off of no $40 worth of food stamps," Ms. Taylor said. "After going to the store, getting whatever necessities you need to try and feed yourself -- what I use out of my own money, plus that $40 worth of food stamps is what I have to feed myself. Now, that is poverty."
Ms. Walker, who is also 73 and worked in the school system for roughly two decades, faces an additional burden -- she is handicapped. She draws Social Security and disability in addition to her retirement income, and still falls into an income-boundary defined as very-low income.
All of the women are on fixed incomes, and each said the amount of money they receive each month runs out before the month ends.
"You can't live off of what we live off of," Ms. Taylor said. "You know, by the time you pay your bills and go to the grocery store and then get your other accessories -- cause you know food stamps can't buy nothing but food -- you ain't got nothing. I ain't got nothing. I speak for myself -- I don't have anything."
This year, Ms. Taylor was put in an even more difficult situation when it comes to buying necessities like food.
"It's hard, they didn't give us an increase this year. Then they turned around and decreased our food stamps," she said. "It was $112 (per month) and they turned around and decreased it to $40. That's over $60 worth of food stamps they took from me. That's kinda hard."
Ms. Taylor said rent in Lincoln Homes is based on income, and after paying her rent, paying her bills and utilities and then using her own money to compensate the loss in food stamps, she is left with next to nothing.
"My rent is $252 plus utilities," Ms. Taylor said. "In the summertime we might get a light bill for $80 or $90. You got to take that with your rent. They're robbing Peter to pay Paul."
Ms. Walker said it is a hard pill to swallow to have worked her entire life and still have barely enough to get by.
"It's kinda hard to understand sometimes when you look at us and the way we have worked," Ms. Walker said. "There's no thank you there. There's no gratitude, there's no thankfulness... We did the best we could, you know, but even at our best it wasn't good enough."
Ms. Taylor said at times it can feel like the elderly who live in poverty are left out to dry by the government at all levels, from the city to the White House.
"You know it seems like they don't want to feed the elderly," she said. "It's like they want us to starve."
The women's shopping lists are simple, basic ingredients that can be used and repurposed for many different types of things.
Ms. Taylor said she will buy cooking oil, corn meal, flour, salt, sugar, one chicken and "maybe a spice to go on something," -- then her food stamps are gone. The rest of her food has to come from her meager income.
Ms. Walker said she usually buys eggs, grits and most of the same items Ms. Taylor purchases. She receives $121 per month in food stamps.
Even putting gas in her car at the current price of roughly $2 per gallon becomes a significant financial burden for Ms. Taylor.
"I can't put it (gas) in there for a whole month," she said. "I have to put $2 or $3 or something like that to keep going. You can't go far. Grocery store and the doctor, then you have to use money to pay for your medication. They don't give it away, you have a copayment."
The women say they get by because they know how to squeeze their dollars for the most value. They'll put baking soda in eggs to make them fluffier so they last longer.
"A dozen of eggs won't last you a month. I don't care if you fry 'em, boil 'em or whatever," Ms. Taylor said. "You add some baking soda to 'em and you can stretch 'em. That's the truth."
When the women were asked how much money they were left with at the end of each month, they laughed.
"I don't have nothing now," Ms. Taylor said.
Ms. Davis, who is 77, said she credits her upbringing with being able to do so much with such little money.
"We thank our mothers because they taught us how to stretch and make it," Ms. Davis said. "When we was coming up our family had big families and our mommas showed us how to make a biscuit, and we had molasses and fatback and stuff like that, and she showed us how to make it stretch to feed our family."
But for all of this, the women said they do not consider themselves to be in poverty.
"We really make do with what we have. Even when our children were home, we still was able to feed the children," Ms. Walker said. "My kids grew up right here in this apartment. All of our children grew up here. We did the very best we could, and we're doing the very best we can now. I just don't like the idea of someone telling me that's because we're considered poor. I don't like that word."
The women said they never truly thought about being in poverty, even when they were growing up in it.
"I don't like the stigma that they put on us over here," Ms. Walker said. "I'll get out there and preach it from the rooftops because this is my home. This is our home. We chose to live here. You didn't put us here. They didn't make us stay here. This is what we're making up for our families. Our families grew up here.
"It just bothers me for people to start labeling my babies, and labeling us over here, because we've done the very, very best that we can. And we're going to continue to do the best that we can. I might be poor, but I don't know it."