Melissa Lewis and her five children — ages one to nine — are trying to get by on food stamps and a $618-a-month welfare check.

But it’s impossible.

Their run-down, two-bedroom rental trailer costs $550 a month.

They’re way behind on their rent, and last month their natural gas was turned off.

“I fell behind on my bill,” said Lewis, 27. “They put me on a payment plan, but I couldn’t keep up. I think I’m behind something like $448.”

Lewis said she was not so worried about being without natural gas in the summer and fall. Instead of boiling water on the trailer’s gas stove for the family’s macaroni, she cooks it in the microwave. She also has a hot plate. A friend lets her and the children bathe at her place.

“It’s sort of an inconvenience,” Lewis said.

With winter coming and below-freezing temperatures, Lewis is wondering how she and the family can hang on.

“What I need is a job,” she said. “I’ve gone to the employment agencies in town, and they all want to know your three-year work history. But I don’t have a work history because I’ve been taking care of my kids this whole time. So then they tell me if anything comes up they’ll call, but they don’t.”

Melissa Lewis, who has five children and is unable to find a job, fell behind on her natural gas bill and cannot afford the 48 to have it turned back on. It's a situation, Lawrence social service agencies say, that will be repeated more and more this winter, when gas prices are expected to skyrocket. Pictured are, from left, Lewis' son Geryan Merdock, 5, Lewis, and her daughters Marissa Merdock, 9, Shayla Merdock, 2, and Makiah Merdock, 6. All played on Thursday in the road in front of their trailer home near 23rd Street and Haskell Avenue.

Lewis has a boyfriend — he’s the father of her youngest child — who helps pay some of the bills, but he has been laid off.

“He’s gone to Oklahoma now,” Lewis said. “He thought he could get a roofing job there, but I haven’t heard from him.”

The father of Lewis’ first four children has disappeared. He does not pay child support.

“Right now, I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Lewis said. “I’m so stressed out, it’s unbelievable.”

Lewis said she has asked local charities for help in paying off her past-due gas bill, but their assistance is restricted to current-month bills.

Down and out

Lewis’ plight is not unique.

“There are thousands of people like her in Lawrence,” said Andy Brown, director of human service programs at Ballard Community Center, 708 Elm St.

Brown said the city’s social service community was bracing for a “very real crisis” this winter as the sluggish economy causes more and more families to seek help from a system that’s already strapped for cash. And with energy officials predicting increases in natural gas prices that might prove difficult even for more financially stable middle-class families, there’s great concern about the crunch awaiting the city’s poorest families.

Shayla Merdock, 2, nibbles on raisins inside her family's trailer home near 23rd Street and Haskell Avenue. Shayla's mother, Melissa Lewis, is one of dozens of Lawrence residents who have had their natural gas shut off -- even before cold weather sets in. Melissa, at rear left, helped her daughter Marissa Merdock, 9, with her homework on Thursday as Shayla ate raisins.

“I can tell you that on a daily basis, I see people moving to Lawrence because they think this is where the jobs are,” Brown said. “But the jobs here are limited and just a notch or two above minimum wage.”

Brown estimated that 10 to 15 new-to-Lawrence families came to the center each week, looking for the “basic provisions they need to carry them over until they get a job.”

It’s safe to assume, he said, that many of these newcomers will need help with their utilities.

“Realistically, we don’t have enough money to help very many people,” he said, estimating that state, federal and charitable contributions generate about $500,000 annually in utility-bill assistance in Douglas County.

Brown said the pending crisis would be subject of a meeting Monday of the city’s Emergency Services Council. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. at the Ballard center.

“None of us are looking forward to this,” he said.

Price spikes

Earlier this year, Aquila officials warned that natural gas prices this winter were expected to be 30 percent higher than last winter’s.

“That’s not changed,” said Larissa Long, director of community relations at the Aquila office in Lawrence.

“The average September bill this year is $28.22,” she said. “Last year, it was $21.98.” That’s a 28 percent increase.

Long attributed most of the increase to more and more power plants using natural gas to generate electricity, creating an increase in the demand that’s driving up prices and crimping natural gas companies’ practice of building up their reserves in the summer when prices tend to be at their lowest.

“We’re doing everything we can to get the word out on this, to let the consumer know this is going to affect them,” Long said.

A harsh winter, she said, will force prices up past the expected 30 percent increase.

Hoping for the best

In Lawrence, much of the utility-bill assistance is coordinated by Warm Hearts, a group that usually raises between $50,000 and $75,000 annually, mostly through a post-Thanksgiving direct-mail campaign.

Warm Hearts board president Doni Mooberry Slough is well-aware of the funding crunch. She’s also optimistic.

“The last time this happened — two winters ago when gas bills doubled and tripled — the community stepped up and we were able to handle it,” she said. “I feel like we can do it again. I hope we can.”

Lewis hopes so, too.

“I just got an eviction notice,” she said. “My landlady wants me out of here this weekend.”