Once Insulated, Region Now Feels Pain of Recession

DAMASCUS, Va. – More than two months after her husband’s work was put on hold by the recession, Cynthia Fields doesn’t have much left to sell.

“Right here was my computer and computer desk. I sold that,” Fields, 48, said while pointing to the empty spots where furniture and other items stood.

“I had really cool wooden-iron end tables over there. I had bookshelves that I sold. I had a really cool corner cabinet that I had to sell. It was right there. … I didn’t get
as much money as it was worth. ... This thing here was full of my cookware, my plates, bowls and all that, and I sold it all, my serving trays and everything,” she said, her voice nearly drowned out by the trucks rumbling past the sagging double-wide she shares with her husband and father.

She and her husband have been behind on bills at other times over the years, but they’ve always managed to catch up. This time, she doesn’t see how it can happen.

They’re behind on their rent and facing eviction. Even though they have no money to pay for a move, they plan to clear out at the end of the month. And although
that’s just a little more than a week away – they have no place to go.

“I don’t want the attention, I really don’t, but we’re about to be homeless,” she said.

As other parts of the nation suffered the financial pain of lost jobs and foreclosures in recent months, many believed rural Southwest Virginia was mostly insulated
from the economic meltdown. But now, the recession is hitting home – and, in a relatively poor region, it’s hitting hard.

“The worst part about it is nobody believes it’s as bad as it is,” Fields said. “Nobody believes how close to absolute desperation we are. ...  This thing is really bad, and it’s really bad for a whole lot of people.”

Those at nonprofit organizations across the region said people like Fields walk into their offices every day seeking some way out of the bind the economy has put them in.

“That’s happening all over the country,” said Mike Rush, director of housing for People Incorporated. “Things that were happening to the lower-income people are now happening to the middle-income people and above.”

Through his organization, Rush said, programs exist to help folks who are otherwise self-sufficient, productive citizens but have fallen on hard times and are at risk of being out on the street.

“It’s not the people who all along could’ve been asking for help, it’s all these new people that are having to ask,” said Kathi Lowe, executive director of Ecumenical Faith in Action, which has seen a huge increase in requests for food and financial assistance.

“It’s the basic story that we hear almost every day now: People are struggling and struggling, and they pay one bill and then they can’t pay the next one,” Lowe said.

“Before, it was kind of a situation where if … maybe your car broke down and you had a big car repair bill, you got behind on your bills, but at least you had the hope of knowing that you were going to catch back up. But now, any tiny little change is going to throw you completely into a hole and you can’t catch up,” Lowe said.

“A person that’s making minimum wage, even if they’re working 40 hours, or a person that has a fixed income like Social Security or disability, they can’t keep up with the increase in the prices and the cost of living, so they’re just getting further behind, too. To me, it just seems like a real frightening situation. It seems like we’re in a spiral, and I don’t see where it’s going to end.”

With double-digit unemployment rates and a future filled with uncertainty, even those who haven’t lost jobs are feeling an economic pinch. They say it started about six months ago.

Glen Murray, a machinist from Bristol, Va., is one of those.

“Basically, the prices are just going up and the wages have remained the same, even for those of us who have been lucky enough to keep our jobs,” Murray said.

Kim Dickenson, of Bristol, Va., who works in construction and whose husband is now an out-of-work truck driver, said her family has had to cut back on everything.

“We’re hateful and hungry,” she said.

The few who haven’t changed their spending habits credit years of planning and careful money management for their ability to stay afloat despite the economy’s effects.

“I spend the same way I did before the economic crisis, and I work at Walmart,” said Heather Worley, a sales clerk whose husband also works at Walmart.

“You have to live within your means all the time, and if you get to living outside your means, then you get into trouble,” Worley said, noting that some people who were laid off from good-paying jobs are struggling unnecessarily because they chose not to save.

“People live paycheck to paycheck, and people don’t think about anything else,” she said.

But even Worley agreed that for a single person working to support a family, a job loss could quickly spell disaster.

People living on Social Security say they, too, are just getting by – and, with prices going up, it’s harder and harder to make ends meet.

“We’ve been affected dramatically,” said Roger Carter, of Bristol, Tenn. “Medication and everything’s going up … and that’s leaving us behind.”

With rising costs all around, a lot of folks will have to try to do without heat this winter, Carter said, and that will result in more health problems, which will result in
more medical and heating bills they can’t afford.

“It just leads to a mushroom effect that reaches out in every area,” Carter said.

“The price of everything goes up, and your income stays the same,” said Gracie Barker, of Glade Spring, Va. “We’re not going to get a raise in Social Security this year to cover the cost of living, so I guess we’ll still be struggling.”

But Barker said she’s more concerned about her grandchildren and especially her great-grandchildren, who will not only feel the far-reaching effects of the recession, but will have to foot the bill for the massive government spending that accompanies it.

Her husband, Robert Barker, blames not only government, but corporate leaders for making things worse. He sees bankers getting bailouts while the working man goes hungry, and CEOs walking away with millions on the backs of laid-off employees.

Robert Beach, of Abingdon, Va., said the federal economic stimulus plans have forgotten Southwest Virginia in favor of more populated areas – and government statistics can be deceiving.

“They’re going to come out with statistics on unemployment benefits, but you’ve got to remember when someone runs out of benefits, they just fall off the charts,” he said.

Larry Riddle, who owns a small “swap and shop” business across from the Fields’ home, said he’s been buying a lot of things from people who need money – but sales are down not only at his business but at all local flea markets.

“The flea marketers are the last ones on the bottom of the retail range,” Riddle said. “If they’re being affected, then you know the economy’s bad.”

Riddle said it’s even hard for people to find work doing odd jobs. He believes that some people in these mountains – one in 100, perhaps one in 50 – are more than
going hungry, they are literally starving in these times. But many of them would starve to death before asking for a handout, he said.

“I believe we’ve just started to see a little bit of it, but not all of it yet,” he said of the recession. “I’m glad I’m in the business I’m in – I’m in the bartering business. If I’m able to keep doing what I do, it’s going to pay off down the road. I think it’s going to make me a better living, where I might actually be able to go into a doctor’s office
and pay cash.”

Across the road, Fields said she’s asked for help. First, she was told the $20,000 her husband made last year was too much for them to qualify for assistance. But she’s been persistent, and she’s hopeful they can find a place to live through People Incorporated, and a job she can do through Experience Works, a program that helps older workers find employment.

In their current home, the rotted floors are covered with plywood in places so no one falls through, she’s afraid to turn on the air conditioning or heat for fear of stirring up unhealthy sludge from damaged duct work, and they face growing deposits owed to the electric company just to keep the lights on. But she said living there has been better than having no roof at all.

“I know I should’ve saved, and I know I should’ve done this and that kind of thing,” she said. “But there really wasn’t money to save.”

Fields, who suffers from diabetes and the after-effects of a heart attack and stroke, said she’s tried twice to go to work. But her health problems make it difficult for her to stay on her feet and retain information, and the fast-food jobs she could get were too much for her to handle.

So she does the work she’s skilled at: crocheting afghans and rag rugs.

The afghans, which she calls “kaleidoscopes,” are stunning to look at, and she said they last forever. It takes a month and about $25 worth of yarn to make an afghan – but even at $100 each, they’re not selling these days.

Meanwhile, as her husband, a brick mason, scours the area for work, and the afghans sit in plastic tubs waiting for a buyer, time is running out.

“For everybody that has worked most of their lives, it shouldn’t be this hard now,” she said. “My husband needs a job, and I need somebody to buy some of these
afghans.”

As they struggle to find the means to survive a recession that has cut into the fabric of America, one thing the couple has held onto is the American flag. They proudly decorate their porch with one flag, and another flutters from the cab of a pickup truck that’s $1,000 away from having a good engine.

“We really like America,” Fields said. “I’ve got a great idea for an afghan, to make it into a star, a red, white and blue star, but I’ve got to get the money to go get the yarn.”

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