October 2017 Archives

NEWS ARTICLES

High rents, low wages leave Volusia-Flagler in housing bind

October 28, 2017  |  The Daytona Beach News Journal

Jodel White cashed her paycheck of $226 after long days of cleaning hotel rooms on the beachside at $8.75 an hour. After bills, new shoes and school uniforms for her two teenagers, she had $34 to her name until the next payday — two weeks later.

That money won’t pay the rest of the electricity deposit she owes or help with rent for the month. It barely covers any groceries for the 16-year-old, 250-pound son she refers to as an “eating machine.”

“It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul,” White said of choosing which bills to pay first as she sat on a hand-me-down couch in her small South Daytona apartment beside her partner and children’s father, Douglas Johnson, a disabled vet.
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