Jenny Ridyard, a client service specialist and data entry worker for 7Hills Homeless Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, experienced an extreme form of poverty. In fact, she and her husband were homeless for seven months before she landed her position with 7Hills.
According to statistics collected in the U.S. Census, there is a fewer percentage of people Ridyard’s age impoverished in Washington County compared to the state and the country.
Though it’s easy to get caught up in the statistics, there is still a large number of people in the county who live in poverty, Ridyard said.
At that time in her life, Ridyard’s income was $0. Her husband has Parkinson’s disease, and he lost his job as a forklift operator when his ailment increased to a point where he could no longer operate the controls. The Ridyards applied for disability, but they had to wait a significant amount of time for that money to start rolling in. They began living out of a tent, and 7Hills became an important resource for them, as they supplied needed medication and meals.
When Ridyard’s husband’s disease continued to accelerate because of his poor living conditions, he was fast tracked to a seven-month wait, she said. During that time, the Ridyards ate at churches and continued to frequent 7Hills and the Salvation Army.
Around the same time Ridyard’s husband began receiving his disability checks, an intriguing opportunity opened up for her. Because of her familiarity with the homeless community and her good standing within the 7Hills community, she was asked to apply for an open job in the client service and data realm within the center.
Ridyard was hired, but when she looks back on it, a part of her never thought she’d make it out of the woods, she said.
According to statistics from the BLS Occupational Employment Database, jobs listed under “Community and Social Service” make an average of $44,370 a year. Careers and jobs involving homeless outreach are at the low end of the totem pole, so one could speculate Ridyard makes significantly less than that. If taken at face value, that type of job makes more than the average Washington County resident.
If Ridyard’s supposed $44,370 salary was divided up, she’d make around $3,697.50 per month. If that were the case, she’d be making much more than what her rough monthly budget could be.
According to the Census ACS Survey conducted in 2015, Fayetteville’s average monthly gross residential rent is $749. She lives in a one-bedroom apartment, but she’s hoping to move into a house within the next year, she said.
By opening up a savings account and actively saving with the intent to buy a small house, Ridyard hopes she can learn from her time in extreme poverty but never live in it again, she said.
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