‘I’m pushing myself and it’s still not enough’: Miami mom struggles with rising cost of living – NBC 6 South Florida

At her home in northwest Miami-Dade, 39-year-old Naomi Augustin is doing the math that has become all too familiar.

Rent is more than $1,800 a month. Electricity runs about $300. Groceries are another $300. Then there are medications and the other expenses that come with raising two boys.

“I am pushing myself and it’s still not enough,” Augustin said.

For years, the single mother hustled to provide for her family, at one point working two jobs to make ends meet. Then, roughly two years ago, everything changed.

“It was just a regular day,” Augustin recalled. “I came from lunch and then just felt an onset of pain.”

Augustin had suffered a stroke.

She spent a month in the hospital and was left paralyzed from the shoulder down. Unable to continue working as she had before, she went on disability.

With help from family and friends, physical therapy and numerous doctor’s visits, Augustin eventually returned to work part time. But she said she now makes about $2,000 to $2,200 a month.

That leaves little room for the basic necessities her family needs.

“For his [my older son’s] senior year, I was not able to do anything for him,” Augustin said through tears.

At her lowest point, she said she was forced to make choices no family wants to face.

“It had gotten really, really tough where I had to decide: Am I going to pay for my medication, for my rent, or if I was going to pay for the light bill?”

Augustin’s struggle is deeply personal, but she is far from alone.

She is among the more than 408,000 Miami-Dade households described as ALICE, an acronym coined by United Way that stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.”

ALICE households earn more than the federal poverty line but still don’t make enough to cover basic living expenses. More than 40% of Miami-Dade residents are said to fall into that category, and the number has continued to rise since the pandemic, according to United Way Miami’s latest ALICE report.

“We’re looking at another 40,000 households that were added to this category,” United Way Miami President and CEO Symeria Hudson said. “And certainly, the challenge is, as the cost of living go up, more people fall into this bucket.”

Hudson said a family of four needs about $96,000 simply to meet basic needs in Miami-Dade, while the average income for a family of four in the ALICE category is about $76,000.

“It takes $96,000 just to meet your basic needs,” Hudson said. “Now, the population that I’m talking about within the ALICE category, the average income is $76,000 for a family of four.”

Women make up a significant part of the population struggling with those costs, according to Hudson.

“84% of the ALICE population are head of household. And a lot of times these are women,” she said.

For Augustin, those statistics play out every month.

“Rent alone here is over 18 hundred. My electricity is about $300 a month,” she said. “Medication when I did not have my Medicaid, one of my medications was about $20, and I believe I had 6 different prescriptions I was taking throughout the day. Groceries about $300 a month.”

Eventually, Augustin turned to United Way for help and was connected with its Center for Financial Stability.

“We started going over some of my financials to see where I am financially and how could United Way help if they could,” she said.

The nonprofit provided Augustin with a gift card to help pay for medication as well as rental assistance. She was also connected with a financial coach to develop a longer-term financial plan and meet regularly to track her progress and expenses.

Still working to regain her strength and mobility, Augustin became emotional talking about the assistance.

“It just meant a lot,” she said.

Her financial challenges haven’t disappeared, but Augustin says she now feels better equipped to manage them.

“Financially things are not where I want to be,” she said, but working monthly with her financial coach has helped her understand where she stands, identify where she needs assistance and find expenses she may be able to reduce.

United Way Miami says addressing the growing ALICE population will require a much broader effort. The organization has outlined a five-year plan that includes investing $36 million in 84 programs, including services such as the Center for Financial Stability and early education programs, as well as collaborations with community partners.

For Augustin, however, the issue is less about percentages and reports than being able to provide for her two sons while rebuilding her own life after her stroke.

“I am pushing myself,” she said.

And for thousands of Miami-Dade families facing the same gap between what they earn and what it costs to live here, pushing harder isn’t always enough.