Nonetheless, as the economy has tanked, her challenges and concerns have deepened. Although a recent dip in interest rates has reduced her payments, Bodewes still shells out nearly a third of her monthly after-tax income to student and credit card debt. Despite always exceeding her monthly minimum credit-card payments, the road to becoming debt-free is decades long.
"I'm definitely feeling pinched," she says. "The amount of money that I've been able to budget after bills is going less far."
In the twilight zone
As I cruised my East Harlem beat in late August, I sought a suitable candidate for our tough times assignment. My earliest thought was to profile a 30-something teacher named Kendra from the Lehman Village Houses, whose ex-drug dealing husband I had already profiled. One late night outside a seedy East 110th Street bar, the couple described how their SUV flipped over five times on a slippery stretch of Westchester highway in May. I listened incredulously as they explained how supernatural agents had saved them from the wreckage. After that, they seemed too odd for our project.
Homicides and housing
I had some trouble with our class’ interactive map assignment. At first, I hoped to correlate homicides and the location of public housing. My enthusiasm fizzled when I realized that the New York Police Department does not release detailed geographic information for all homicides, unlike many other urban police departments. Further, I realized that the correlation between my two variables was weaker than expected. In the end, my partner and I focused on foreclosures in the Bronx and Queens. The data made a revealing map.
—Ben Piven
Her primary concern is a retirement fund -- right now she has none. And even when she finishes paying off her student debt, she is uncertain what to do with her money. She wants to invest it, but no longer trusts the stock market.
"You expect things to exponentially grow and get more stable as you get older," she concludes. "But that hasn't been the case."
Meanwhile, Bodewes’ each day works with needy families.
“She deals with a lot of trauma and puts some of her own needs aside," says Caitlin Galliker, 30, a social worker who graduated with Bodewes in 2003. "There's definitely a trade-off. But…we couldn't be ourselves just working for money, just working for a job, just working for a company.”
Economic turmoil can also damage families and increase the demands on social workers. "What Meta does with child abuse and child welfare is absolutely necessary,” Galliker says, “and in tough times, it's even more important.”
“We'll continue to do good work,” she says, “even if we can't buy fancy dinners all the time."
