Illness Makes Finding Work Hard
—Alamance County, NC, aid recipient—
So I got laid off about four years ago, maybe five. Anyway, so I went back to school, took up appliance repairing, GTCC [Guilford Technical Community College], but as soon as I finished the program, which is about a year, I had a stroke. So it hinders my employability now because no one wants to hire a person who had a stroke because if I ever have another one and I’m on their time, they’re responsible. So it makes it hard to get a job. But fortunately I have a wife that pretty much takes care of everything. But this month the light bills were past three months. The light bill has been higher than normal. So I had to come in [for help].
“Peyton” is receiving disability, but was applying for emergency aid for the first time. He is African-American, aged 50, and was interviewed by Tom Mould on March 26, 2013.