By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

An unemployed St. Cloud single mother wakes up every day and sends out résumés, hoping to get a call back for an interview.

The 44-year-old former real estate education director lost her job Jan. 1, 2009 after the company downsized. In the year and nine months she’s been out of work, she said she has sent out 1,200 résumés.

“You start to go crazy,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous. “It got to the point where I wasn’t leaving the house (to save gas) in case I got a job interview.”

In June, her unemployment benefits ran out and while she was able to work out deals with her landlord and other utilities, her electricity provider, Orlando Utilities Commission, would not give her an extension. Afraid her electricity would be shut off, the St. Cloud resident took the OUC operator’s advice and called 2-1-1, the Heart of Florida United Way’s helpline.

Hernando Otero, an OUC Project Care Program specialist since 2008, took the woman’s information and determined she qualified for assistance. OUC customers contribute to the fund when they pay their bill and the company matches the donations 2-to-1.

The St. Cloud resident cried when Otero told her the OUC bill would be paid.

“It was a huge relief that the burden had been lifted off my shoulders for that little bit of time,” she said. “When I get a job, I’m going to give back because they were there for me.”

She is not alone.

From January through the end of August, with the majority of cases handled from May through August, 45 St. Cloud households were helped by OUC Project Care to the tune of more than $7,000. In Osceola County, from July 2009 to June 2010, more than $43,500 in assistance was distributed among 172 households through the program.

“Every week we’re receiving a good amount of requests from St. Cloud,” said Otero.

One in every 88 houses in Osceola County was involved in a foreclosure filing in July, according to foreclosure trend tracking website RealtyTrac.com, and August’s unemployment rate for the county was 12.5 percent.

In Osceola County, the 2-1-1 helpline received more than 2,100 calls in August, a 152 percent increase, and received nearly 2,000 calls in July, a 122 percent increase, compared with the same months in 2009.

United Way officials cite unemployment benefits running out, recent job loss or job hours decreasing, foreclosure and depleted savings as reasons the numbers have gone up so drastically.

“2-1-1 is an access point where a person can start their process to find out what is available. You have a very high need and not a lot of resources available to meet that need,” Larry Olness, vice president of community services for Heart of Florida United Way, said. “I think what’s important in these economic times is people don’t reach out until they’re in so deep. It’s easier to address a $75 electric bill than a $3,000 bill that is several months behind.”

The top three service requests from callers to 2-1-1 for August were utility assistance at 31 percent; housing assistance at 27 percent; and food assistance at 8 percent. Similar numbers were posted in July, according to United Way officials.

Oftentimes, the trained information specialists give the caller the name and number of an agency that can help. There are 76 health and human service agencies in Osceola County and 609 agencies based outside the county that service county residents. And if people are unable to call for themselves, an operator will call the agency for them.

Additionally, 2-1-1 also is the crisis line for Osceola County, offering assistance for emotionally overwhelmed callers, or even those with suicidal thoughts. The helpline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

“It’s important for people in crisis to know they can call in the middle of the night on a holiday,” Caree Jewell, director of the United Way 2-1-1, said.