Voices from the series

Voices from the “Paycheck to Paycheck” series in the Centre Daily Times:

“We have a huge number of working poor now who just can’t make ends meet. This is not a joyous season to date.” — Robert Ott, director of Centre County’s Office of Adult Services

“It’s going to be an expensive winter, and a lot of people are going to have some serious problems.” — Matthew Hall, executive director of Interfaith Mission in State College

“They’re not in chronic need usually. They’re one crisis away from eviction, a termination of power, or not having a car to go to work. It’s paycheck to paycheck.” — Ellen Mayer, case manager for the State College Salvation Army Corps, on the region’s “invisible poor”

“If his job is to earn the money, then my job is to stretch the money, to make it last longer. It takes work.” — Heather Kellerman, of State College, whose family, which includes her husband, Todd, and two young sons, is living thriftily to make ends meet

“If somebody wants to work in Centre County, they can work because there’s so much opportunity. When somebody says they can’t find a job in Centre County, it means they can’t find the good-paying job they want.” — Linda Calhoun, manager of the Pennsylvania CareerLink office in College Township

“The biggest thing that hit us in the face was the rising price of gas and the change in our health care coverage.” — Betsy Snyder, of Howard

“If I had to get pills, then I would get my pills and not pay my electric bills.” — Jackie Christiansen, who has narcolepsy-cataplexy, no health insurance to pay for medication and is a patient at Centre Volunteers in Medicine, which provides free medical service to uninsured Centre County residents

“What you see are jobs that pay non-living or at-living wages with no flexibility or benefits, or professionalized employment in health care and educational services. Beyond that, not a lot are paying living wages.” — Amy Glasmeier, professor of economic geography at Penn State

“One of the things that I think is troubling is that we have lost 55 percent of our industrial jobs, our manufacturing jobs, since 2003.” — Steve Dershem, Centre County commissioner

“We’ve had patients pull their own teeth out with pliers because they couldn’t afford dental care. They’re desperate.” — Jennifer Michaels, a social worker at Centre Volunteers in Medicine

“We’re not doing too bad. You just buckle down and set your mind to what you want to get.” — Dave Fritts, who bought his home near Julian with the help of a low-interest mortgage through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, belt-tightening and a lot of hard work

“It doesn’t matter what kind of job you have. If you want something bad enough it will come to you.” — Rose Fritts, of Julian, Dave Fritts’ wife, on their struggles and successes