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Nelson, 54, of Akron’s Goodyear Heights neighborhood, doesn’t consider himself poor. He has worked most of his life, owns his own home and never needed to accept charity.

“There’s a lot of people worse off than me,” he insists. But after being without steady work for more than a year and having used up most of his savings, he admits he’s at risk.

“I’m tapping into what I might have retired with but I have to live for today. You have to live like it’s your last day,” he said recently. “… I don’t want to live high on the hog. I just want to pay my bills and live a quiet life and retire sometime.”

Part of his risk is that he doesn’t have health insurance at the temporary, $10-an-hour job he recently took. His wife, Joleen, works cleaning a restaurant at night. She could buy health insurance at about $250 a month, but they can’t afford it.

He’s not alone.

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