Rising gas, food and other costs magnify struggles of raising children alone

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Single parents look for outside support to get through day-to-day

Brandy Dean stopped taking her medication a few weeks ago.

One of her children is being treated by a specialist in Odessa and with gas prices inching closer to $4 a gallon combined with the cost of medication, the single mom had to eliminate spending everywhere she could.

To meet rising food, gas and other costs, Christy Green has spent much of the last few years working for the Department of Public Safety during the day and waiting tables at night.

Even with babysitting help from her mom, childcare funds from West Texas Opportunities and previous stints of food stamps, Green says the day-to-day of single parenting continues to be a struggle.

"I can't just get away," said Green, who said the only indulgence she allows herself is sometimes wearing makeup. "I don't even try."

With the average cost of food increasing about 6 percent from this time last year, coupled with record fuel prices and local rental rates that in some instances have nearly doubled in the last few years, even many nuclear families are feeling the pinch. But for some of the more than 880,000 single-parent families in Texas, the financial squeeze is straining what was already a tight situation.

"Especially in a booming town like this you really start to see the disparity between the haves and the have nots," said Kevin Harrington, who helps organize the St. Vincent de Paul Ministries that offer short-term support to low-income families.

Housing crunch

While requests have increased in most social service organizations across the board, Harrington and others agreed the biggest need for single parents locally is assistance with rent as many going to re-sign their lease realize they can't afford the jump in monthly charges.

Dean came to Midland Fair Havens in November after she was cut off from food stamps and struggling to pay rent and daycare costs that exceeded $1,300 a month.

"I don't know how we made it then," she said.

Fair Havens houses single moms who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless while they work to become more self-sufficient. Dean is studying to become a nurse and working at Midland College. She also participates in narcotics anonymous meetings while staff at Fair Havens watch her children.

R'Ev Finley, a single mom whose kids are now in their 20s, said for many of the single pregnant women she sees while teaching at the Life Center, it may come down to living in groups to get by.

Though she said this communal style is not "the American way" it's going to have to become more accepted if many local young women want to have shelter and food for their children.

"I don't say it's impossible," she said of raising children completely independantly. "But it's a feat."

Alicia Cooper and her two children have already followed this advice to some extent. She moved in with her mother after she and her husband divorced last year so she'd have someone to share basic expenses with.

"If I didn't have my family to help me I'd be broke all the time," said Cooper, who took a job in the Children's Ministry at First Baptist Church after joining their singles group last year.