Sometimes, I think even the so-called experts just don’t get it.

They’re so used to assisting, analyzing or working with families who have been “down and out” for so long that they don’t understand the new species of needy families that is evolving: middle class families who are suddenly on tight budgets.

Example: I work as a newspaper reporter. I called a community agency this week to pin down the qualifications for a service it is providing for needy families and initially got “150 percent of poverty level” as the response.

No, that’s not what I asked for. I wanted the requirements explained in very clear terms so local residents could understand whether they were, or were not, eligible and decide whether the program could be useful to them.

While I did get a more helpful explanation by insisting on it, this is not the first time that I have found community service agencies speaking in a language that is incomprehensible to some of the people they are trying to reach — and / or puzzled that I was using the Internet to reach out to families on a budget.

You see, we have a new species in the habitat, one that doesn’t follow the traditional route into poverty:

These are families who had good-paying / steady jobs until fairly recently, which is why they have a computer, a house and a car.

Middle class families who are suddenly jobless don’t go out and sell a computer they’ve owned for two or three years. They fix it up and keep using it because an Internet connection is a cheap way to stay in contact with friends and family, do financial transactions, set up job searches and research how to save money. Today’s middle class families are actually more likely to drop landline phones, cablevision or newspaper subscription (gulp!) before they drop Internet service.

They also don’t go out and sell a house to downsize to a rental or smaller home – because in southeast Michigan and other parts of the country, too many families can’t sell for what they owe on their homes even if they have a traditional 30-year-fixed mortgage.

And they have a car, sometimes still with a car payment, but there have been stories in the national media of people giving up their homes before they give up their cars. And here is another regional wrinkle: While my husband and I did not qualify for any such program, a lot of southeast Michigan families bought their vehicles on autoworker friends and family discounts. So their car payments are cheaper than those of us who paid regular prices.

If you have not yet been convinced that a new species of needy families across the country is searching for financial answers, you should note that there is an entire bulletin board on Frugal Village focusing on Financial Hardships!

Just as the experiences of the Great Depression and World War II had an impact for decades on how survivors of those eras handled money, I suspect there will be long-term ramifications to what’s happening to middle class families today:

• They’ll remember which agencies, churches, or friends helped them out during tough times – and who insisted on a lot of red tape or turned them down because they “made too much money.”
• They’ll have improved or updated their DIY skills and frugal habts, and therefore will be less likely to spend money on conveniences even after an economic recovery.
• They’ll be far more cautious about spending money, and have less patience for businesses whose products and services lack long-term value.
• They’ll remember which media outlets – whether traditional or new media – pointed them in the right direction or gave encouragement, and which ones “just didn’t get it.”