New inflation figures released this week showed that food and housing costs rose over the past year, and that increase is weighing heavily on some families in South Florida. For households already living close to the edge, the higher prices have turned everyday budgeting into a constant struggle.
One Broward County organization says it is seeing more and more mothers forced to choose between paying the rent and buying food. In the most difficult cases, the group says, some women have even had to live in their cars when they could no longer keep up with the cost of a home.
Among the people the nonprofit has helped is a single mother of two. She lost her job as a dental assistant when she had to step away to care for her father, and she now works part time as a waitress while her teenage sons stay with a relative.
She said she tries to stay strong for her children but has reached her breaking point. She is tired, she explained, of hiding from her kids that she sometimes needs help, and tired of being in what she called survival mode, even as she keeps figuring things out day by day.
The group Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies stepped in and helped her fend off an eviction. That relief, however, only lasted so long, underscoring how quickly families can fall back into crisis once temporary assistance runs out.
The organization's executive director, Dawn Liberta, said many of the women they assist are just one family emergency away from losing their homes. Asked how often she hears stories like these, she said she could hardly count how often they come in.
The scale of the pressure is reflected in the numbers. By one estimate, 44 percent of renters in Broward County are housing cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, leaving little room for rising food and other essential costs.