Tuesday, Ashley Stutzman's water was turned off.

Last month, her electricity was shut off for a few days.

She was laid off from her waitressing job five months ago. She's applied everywhere, she said, but no one is hiring.

Her fiance was recently certified as a medical phlebotomist but can't find a job.

Despite receiving public assistance, food stamps, Medicaid, subsidized child care for 3-year-old Gabriel and bartending on weekends, there is never enough money to cover all the bills, Stutzman said - even with cutting out all the extras.

Stutzman's story of struggle isn't unique in Lincoln, said Beatty Brasch, director of the Center For People In Need.

On Wednesday, the Center released findings from its third annual community needs survey of 2,000 low-income families.

Among them:

* 80 percent of Lincoln's low-income families do not have enough food - even though they are accessing food resources, Brasch said.

* 62 percent skip medical care, don't fill prescriptions or skimp on medication because they cannot afford it.

* 32 percent of families with medical insurance say they still can't afford an office visit, and 39 percent say they can't afford the co-pay.

These statistics reflect low-income life in Lincoln as it was in December. And overall, they are worse than they were in December 2007.

So far in 2009, Brasch fears life has gotten more desperate for Lincoln's poor families.

"Since January, we have had record numbers of 325 families on average for our food program," Brasch said.

Two years ago, the average was 150 to 200 families.

Two weeks ago, 418 families came through the food distribution line. Tuesday, 420 families.

"We're seeing a lot more working families, who were making it before, and now suddenly they don't have enough food," Brasch said.

"Life is extremely unstable for many families," Brasch said. "Basically they live from one crisis to another."

Among the 42 percent of those surveyed who hold jobs, more than a quarter of them said they were not earning enough to cover monthly costs of food, housing, utilities and transportation.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they can't afford to buy clothes for themselves or their families, and 42 percent said they relied on at least one community resource program for clothing - up from 25 percent in 2007.

Among working parents, 20 percent said they had to quit a job and 15.2 percent had to quit school or job training because they could not afford child care.

Another 10.3 percent of parents say they have had to leave their children with someone they don't trust, in order to go to work.

And 25 percent of non-working parents said the primary reason they did not have a job was because they could not afford child care.

"It's a terrible stress on parents," Brasch said.

Stutzman, 21, says the answer for her is a good education and a better job. She's working on her GED and hopes to enroll at Southeast Community College in the fall. Her goal is to teach elementary school.

As a condition of her public assistance, she volunteers at the Center for People in Need enrolling new clients.

And she is alarmed by the continuing fallout of a dismal economy.

When she started volunteering in December, the Center was averaging 65 to 80 people per week, she said. Now it's more than 100 people.

Many have far more education and work experience than her.

"Everybody is affected by this. We have nurses with associate degrees, certified forklift operators, factory management…," Stutzman said "It's not that they don't want to do a job - there isn't a job for them to do."

Reach Erin Andersen at 473-7217 or eandersen@journalstar.com.