ROANOKE RAPIDS — Raising a family is never easy. The everyday strain of providing food and shelter for loved ones can cause cracks in even the most stable relationships. But when family units are burdened with the additional pressures of surviving a national economic crisis in one of the poorest counties in the state, those small cracks can widen, leaving parents stressed and homes fractured, often beyond repair.

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Michael Watkins knows those pressures all too well. The Littleton native recently took on a second job working nights at a local convenience store in addition to his full time job painting houses. “I can’t hardly do it,”  he said yesterday, pushing a shopping cart through the aisles of Lowes Foods in Roanoke Rapids, “working two jobs, night and day. I’ve about forgotten how to sleep. My wife had to pick up a job cleaning houses; she‘s not home with the babies like she wants to be. My mom’s helping out. We’re just surviving, not too many people I know are living, just surviving.”

With two school-age children to care for, Watkins said luxury items have become scarce around his home. “You learn how to say no real quick, when the kids want the newest toys or video games. Daddy just doesn’t have the money. It definitely puts a strain on the marriage”

If the most recent economic numbers for Halifax County are any indication, Watkins is far from alone. According to Michael Felt, director of the Halifax County Department of Social Services, Halifax is one of 40 counties throughout North Carolina designated Tier 1, placing it among the state’s most impoverished regions.

 “Since 1999 we’ve seen a 90 percent increase in food assistance and a 46 percent increase in Medicaid recipients,”  he said during an interview yesterday. Felt tolled off a number of other striking statistics: 230 additional citizens seek DSS aid each month; 13,850, or 21 percent, of Halifax County citizens currently use food stamps. “Depending on how you look at the numbers, we rank as the first, second or third most challenged county. With the catastrophic layoffs and business closings, it’s only made things worse.”

Felt warned help from the federal government may actually increase the burden faced by the DSS, whose staff has been pushed to the limit by the economic downturn.

“With this economic recovery stimulus package, it’s going to add a whole new population to those we’re already serving. It will expand the eligibility for food assistance and Medicaid, etc., yet we have no more staff to serve them. It’s the straw that’s breaking the camel’s back.”

 As evidence, Felt singled out the recently expanded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which will now extend to cover an additional 4 million children and pregnant women, including for the first time legal immigrants without a waiting period. The program was designed to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid.

The areas economic woes have affected everyone, said Felt. “We see people who never thought they would walk through our doors or use our services, Middle Americans I call them, who have been displaced by job loss and unemployment.”

Cassi Guttersen, Work First coordinator at the Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce, said she’s also noticed the shift. “We’ve seen a difference in the education level of people coning in,” stated Guttersen. “We have a lot of very qualified, educated people who are unemployed and that’s not helping this area at all.”

Guttersen said the first step taken by anyone facing unemployment should be to register with the Employment Security Commission. She also recommended attending the numerous job fairs held throughout the area, such as the one April 15 at Becker Village Mall.

Though the numbers would seem to paint a bleak picture, Felt for one, remains optimistic. “We’re going to do the best we can. Historically, the country has always thrived after a recession and it will happen again. We will transcend this recession. The good news is that we’re here for the citizens and we will continue to be here.”