“If I do this, I lose everything. And if I don’t I have nothing. So which way do I go?”

That’s a question that Tina Smith hears. A lot. 

Tina is a family advocate for Great Lakes Community Action Partnership (GLCAP). She helps people who are in crisis—people who are behind on rent, at risk of being evicted, and facing homelessness. Every person’s situation is, of course, different. But a recurring theme among her clients is the feeling of being stuck. More specifically, stuck on the edge of the benefits cliff. 

The “benefits cliff” is the term that refers to the point at which an increase in a person’s income causes a reduction in that person’s benefits, which may include a loss of housing assistance, SNAP benefits, or Medicaid. A promotion at work or the offer of a better job with better pay may sound ideal, but for those near the edge of the cliff, a seemingly upward move could result in an even worse financial fall. 

People who contact Smith seeking housing help frequently struggle with the question of how to get ahead, without falling even further behind. 

“It’s a very hard question to answer,” Smith said. “It really is.”

Aimee (not her real name) is one of Smith’s clients who, for as long as both can recall, has been closer to the edge of the cliff than not. Aimee said her parents and other families struggled with addiction. She describes the household in which she grew up as dysfunctional, and acknowledges that at one point, she was not headed in a good direction.

“At one time, I was a high school dropout and not necessarily on the right path,” Aimee said. “But the person I am today is not the person I have always been.”

As a young woman with three children, Aimee decided to make a move to pursue a better career and a better life for her family. She started by earning her GED, but did not stop there. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Aimee opted to use stimulus funds to move onward and earn her licensed practical nursing (LPN) degree. All the while, she has been very careful with any money that comes her way. She budgets carefully, using tax returns and other COVID stimulus money to pay ahead on rent. She was also able to qualify for rental assistance through GLCAP to help with the cost of housing. 

And, even knowing that it could make it harder for her to receive assistance, Aimee decided to go for her registered nursing degree. 

“Sometimes you have to stop figuring out how you’re going to do it, and you have to just do it and give it to God,” “And that’s what I did. I said, ‘I’m just going to go back to school and not worry about how to get there. I’m just going to put it in God’s hands.’”

Her attentiveness with paying forward gained the attention of Aimee’s landlord, who also reached out to GLCAP to see if additional help was available for Aimee for the final months of her semester.

“My wife and I are committed to helping Aimee live in our home and getting through her RN,” he wrote in an email to Smith. “I am worried she will struggle to pay rent and utilities during this time and I was hoping there may be a program out there for her.”

Smith was able to find help for Aimee through COVID-related housing assistance funds. The support was enough to help Aimee cover expenses and better focus on completing her semester. Though the funding has since expired, COVID-relief was a godsend for those who found themselves on the cusp of losing benefits. 

“Aimee was able to get a little past that bubble and get some help,” Smith said. “She would work 30-40 unpaid hours during clinicals, and then she could work a little and get some income, but then would have to go back to clinicals again.

“On top of that, she was stuck in that area where if she was working, she would have too much money and her healthcare would get cut, but if she didn’t make enough money, she couldn’t take care of her kids,” Smith added. 

Unfortunately, this is a common predicament for those living below or near the poverty line. The Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies (OACAA) reports that income-eligibility guidelines for public assistance programs generally fall lower than the amount needed to afford housing, groceries, and achieve overall self-sufficiency. OACAA’s 2023 State of Poverty in Ohio reports that a family of four (two adults, two children) would need an annual income of at least 187% of federal poverty guidelines to meet the self-sufficiency standard.  Thresholds for public assistance programs typically fall below this level.  For example, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has a threshold of 130% federal poverty guidelines ($3,250 per month/family of four). Those making more than this threshold, but less than the self-sufficiency measure, may find themselves cut off from assistance, but still falling below the earnings needed to meet basic needs.

It's a situation that Smith says is not uncommon.

“She was kind of stuck in that bubble we see a lot. Fortunately, we were able to help get her a little past that bubble.”

Aimee’s drive to complete her nursing program paid off this past June, when she graduated with her RN degree. 

“You could hear the determination in her voice — ‘I’m doing it. I’m almost there,’” Smith said. “And that is the best thing in the whole wide world, because this is a career that she can raise her family on.”

For Aimee, the sacrifices of managing school, family, work, and expenses have been worth it in helping not only herself get ahead, but also, her children get ahead in the future.

“I look at my kids and what they’ve gone through, and it’s nowhere near what I went through, so even if I’m not the best mom, I’m still better than what I had, and that’s all I want is to be better than what I had. Then maybe they can be better what they had,” Aimee said. 

“But somewhere, the cycle has to stop, and I feel like if I didn’t do anything else, I at least did that.”