Herewith, a rant:
One of our employees, a young single mother pregnant with her third child, floored her supervisor the other day by mentioning she’d bought a house in Oakland.
“How,” he asked incredulously, “did you manage that when I know you take home only $1500/month? For example, how did you manage the 30% or more down payment that everybody’s requiring in these days of tight credit? I know you have no savings.”
“Oh, it’s easy,” says she. “When the bank found out what my expenses were, they said I qualified for only 4% down because my only expense each month is my $450 car payment and gas for the car. The rest of my paycheck can go to the mortgage.”
Leave aside the specter of this woman, like most of our employees at this wage level, driving very nice brand new cars while our managers and execs grit our teeth and economize with well-used vehicles. How is it her only expense each month is her car payment and gas?
Here’s how, as she explained:
Food stamp “debit card” takes care of all her and her kids’ food needs.
State-subsidized daycare for her two kids: $4/month.
Home insurance and property taxes rolled into the mortgage.
Presumably she’s choosing to drive while uninsured, or has REALLY cheap insurance she’s not told us about. (Do auto dealers sell insurance they roll into the car payment?)
Health care subsidized by us (her employer) — we deduct $40/month from her paycheck for a basic Kaiser plan that costs us several hundred for her part alone. She doesn’t include her kids on her employer plan, because:
Kaiser has free child health care services for the first year or so, and there are state child health care programs after that.
Not to mention the CalWorks, WIC and TANF programs, at least one of which she receives benefits from.
Oh, did I mention that she CHOSE to get pregnant three times as a single parent because a) she wanted kids, and b) it wouldn’t add to her expenses.
The sad thing is, if you look at it that way, she’s actually a better risk for a mortgage company than a lot of the wealthier folks who were being pitched mortgages just a few years ago.
UPDATE: I should add that I’ve seen a pic of the house, it’s a nice 900-square-foot bungalow, and in a decent part of Oakland, which isn’t saying much, but hey, she’s a homeowner!
This opened my eyes and kinda scared me.
The only happy end to this story is “So I fired her welfare loving ass!”
Well, but fire her for what exactly? For utilizing the resources made available to her in a stunningly efficient manner? Besides, she’s a good worker so far as I know.
And frankly, we have a lot of employees just like her, good workers, but same mindset, same life choices, etc. — they just haven’t yet figured out they can buy a house, even though they scramble every day to find a few bucks to spend at the roach coach.
And if we were to fire them (which in California would be fraught with some peril absent a good justification), we’d have to find people to hire to replace them — and that’s the subject of my next rant.
Man, I pull in $20 an hour and considering a $140,000 house scares the shit out of me. Hell, after my truck, utilities, expenses, savings and planning for kids that much is completely out of the question. No wonder the working poor can afford crack.
Well, “savings” and “planning” for anything, much less kids, are not activities frequently engaged in by these folks!
Oh, your mention of utilities reminded me that her PG&E bill is likely vanishingly small due to a program that PG&E has for low-income folks. My roommate and I used it when we were poor law students; I assume it still exists. Our power bill in 1995 was something like $6/month for a two-bedroom apartment.
Sadly the worst part of this story, is that her kids will grow up thinking this is normal, and not only is it ok, but its a right to have all of that stuff paid for by others.