- Read the case two case studies at the end of this worksheet.
a. Case 1: Sophie is a single woman. She is 35 years old, and although, previously married, she has no children, and limited education. She dropped out of community college with only about a semester of credits. She didn’t work while married, and has only been in the labor force for the past three years. She has no savings, no significant support system, and is trying to get out of shelter accommodations from a homeless shelter. Sophie has recently (last month) started a steady job at a fast food restaurant. She is working the day shift, and making minimum wage. She gets scheduled for 30 hours each week. Sophie wants to get an apartment and support herself, but isn’t sure that she can afford to do so. Currently she lives near the restaurant and walks to work, but if she gets an apartment she would have to find transportation. Sophie hasn’t gone to a Dr in years, and has health issues that need to be addressed.
b. Case 2: Jack and John have three children ages 1-5 years old. Jack works as an account manager for a local business, and has a salary of $45,000/year. They rent a house in a suburban area for $2200/month plus utilities, but never seem to be able to make ends meet. Jack has a bachelor’s degree and pays $500/month in student loan repayments. Jack is at the top of his pay scale in his company. John is a stay at home parent, and one of the children has special needs. They have one car that Jack takes to work every day and have a car payment of $400/month. - Pick a case and develop a required spending list. Identify what the individual/family needs to spend money on, on a monthly basis.
- Search the internet to find out how much each of the required things that you indicated the family/individual needs cost each month in Buffalo, NY. (You can estimate groceries based on your own grocery spending).
- Identify what the poverty guideline is for each individual/family. Determine what the difference is between “poverty” and the income of the individual/family.
- How are each doing? What does life look like for them? Are they living in poverty?
- Read part 2 of each case.
a. Sophie finds an apartment in Amherst. The shelter recommends that she not take it because it requires more than 50% of her income. She ignores this and moves to the apartment. It takes 90 minutes to get to work using the bus now, and Sophie became frequently late to work and her hours have been reduced to 20/week.
b. Jack came down with what they thought was a cold, but ended up hospitalized with pneumonia. He didn’t have enough sick leave and his company doesn’t fall under the guidelines to require paid family leave. Jack took leave without pay for a month, but was then let go from his position when he could not return to work. - What happens now?
- Search for support services in Buffalo, NY that might be able to help in this situation. Identify
one that you would want them to connect with, and explain how they may be able to help.
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