Bryant's family joins many others around the country trying to survive on a single-salary income. His wife is on disability leave due to kidney disease, a condition requiring 4-hour treatments three times a week, leaving their family of five to get by on Bryant's income, which totals less than $50,000 a year.
"[Financial concerns] really didn't hit me until my wife got sick," Bryant said, whose income must now support his wife and three teenage children. "There are times I work paycheck to paycheck...and then I'm the last one to get something."
Bryant says his wife's dialysis costs almost $1,000 per treatment. Expenses that, for now, are covered by Medicaid. His own bout with diabetes, however, only compounds the family's health concerns and financial burdens. Insulin and Medforman total almost $50 a month. Additional monthly household expenses leave Bryant with just enough money left over every couple of months to treat himself to a paintball trip in Pennsylvania. "That's my relaxation," said Bryant.
In many ways, East New York, Brooklyn, looks like other low-income neighborhoods around the country: liquor stores outnumber trees and the desolate streets are lined with rowhouses, only to be interrupted by a few low-rise apartment buildings and abandoned and boarded up houses. According to the New York City Department of City Planning, more than 30 percent of people in East New York live below the poverty line, and nearly half of the population receives some type of government income subsidy. The area has also been hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis. Last January, 2,350 homeowners in the area had subprime mortgages, and many of those were already in foreclosure, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Despite living paycheck to paycheck, Bryant says his family is doing OK. "We're struggling but it's not as bad as some people. We have a roof over our heads, we have an automobile,” said Bryant. “So you know, my kids, they're not dirty, and they have up-to-date clothes."
"We don't have extra money to maybe take a vacation," he added. "But otherwise, I think we're alright."
Bryant is now considering driving an ambulance for the Fire Department of New York -- tempting because of its generous benefits and pension. He is also thinking about applying to become a bus driver with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where he would make a higher hourly wage.
"I'm happy," he said, "But I could be a little more happy if I had a little extra income."
