Lisa Bernie knew what it was like to get a regular paycheck.

She was poor. Life was often a struggle. Still she managed to support herself and her children.

But recent family calamities pushed the single mother, previously independent, out of work and onto the welfare rolls.

“In all my life, I’ve been on food stamps two or three times, but this is the first time I’ve been on welfare,” Bernie said. “I hate it.”

Experts say the difficulties Bernie, a single mother, has come to know all too well are becoming more commonplace as the sluggish economy compounds the problems of the so-called “working poor.” In Lawrence, advocates for the poor are helping more families and are seeing more falling below the poverty line.

For almost three years, Bernie has rented a two-bedroom mobile home in North Lawrence for $325 a month.

“That’s cheap,” she said.

But it’s not insulated, so in the winter months Bernie’s gas bill skyrockets. Last winter, she fell behind in her payments.

“In January, I owed the gas company $1,275,” she said. “After that, I went on a payment plan and between January and April, I got it down to $600.”

No heat, hot water

But she missed a payment, and the gas company shut off her service. To get it back, she had to pay $600.

She tried, but it was hard to save money and raise two children – Payton, 6, Savannah, 4 – on a $10-an-hour job. Bernie also has more than $400 taken from her paycheck each month for child support payments for four children who live in South Dakota. She does get child support from Payton’s and Savannah’s fathers.

“We went without gas from April to October; we didn’t have hot water that whole time,” said Bernie, 36.

In October, the nights turned cold. Not knowing what else to do, she bought a hot plate at a thrift shop Oct. 14. That night, she and the children slept in the living room. The hot plate kept them warm.

“The first two nights it worked pretty good,” she said. But on the morning of Oct. 15, disaster struck.

While getting dressed, Savannah sat on the hot plate.

“I was in the kitchen,” Bernie said. “When I heard her scream, I knew what had happened.”

Savannah spent the next seven days in the burn unit at Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. She’s healthy now and back home.

Realizing that without heat, Bernie’s children were likely candidates for foster care, welfare officials paid her delinquent gas bill. They also put her on cash assistance and food stamps.

She quit a janitorial job at KU to be with Savannah when the girl was injured.

“I’d worked there one day when this happened,” Bernie said. “I’ve reapplied a bunch of times, but they say they are not hiring at this time.”

Common plight

In Lawrence, advocates for the poor say Bernie’s plight is becoming commonplace.

“I just did a survey,” said Rich Forner, administrator at the Salvation Army in Lawrence. “Last year, we took in about 65 people a month; this year, we’re at 83, and it’s going up.”

More and more, he said, people like Bernie – low-income mothers with small children – are falling behind on their bills, Forner said.

“Some of these folks, no matter how hard they try – the ends don’t meet,” he said. “The money to make that happen simply isn’t there.”

Linda Lassen is seeing the same thing at Penn House, a Lawrence program that helps low-income families with food, medicine and utility bill payments.

“We usually give out food to about 30 to 35 families a week,” said Lassen, director at Penn House. “The last week of November, we had 45 families come in.”

Many times, she said, a breadwinner’s willingness to work isn’t enough.

“I’ve been at this for 30 years, so I don’t believe all the stories that are out there,” she said. “But I also know that a lot of people work hard at good, $10-an-hour jobs, and by the time they pay rent, utilities and buy food, there’s nothing left. The expenses are outrageous.”

Jim Baze, planning director at East Central Kansas Community Action Agency, said that in the coming weeks people like Bernie would have trouble finding $10-an-hour work.

“Jobs are not as plentiful as they were just a year ago,” he said. “And the people on the margins are always the first to feel the pinch.”

Trust God

Bernie isn’t worried.

“It’s like my sister says, âÂÂ’If you take care of children, God will take care of you,'” she said. “I believe that.”

To get through the holidays, Bernie is hoping her friends will let her baby-sit their children over New Year’s Eve.

Christmas is taken care of. The children were adopted for the holidays by workers at O’Reilly Auto Parts, and Bernie has rounded up a few presents at the Salvation Army.

“We’ll make it,” she said. “Everybody who knows me knows I’m a hard worker – I’ll get a job, I always have. But I tell you what, if the gas wasn’t turned on and presents weren’t under the tree, I’d have tears in my eyes.”