ALEXANDRIA — Though Doug, an Alexandria resident, can’t work because of a disability, he doesn’t spend his days idle.

The 56-year-old often can be found at local businesses, doing the only thing he can to survive before his disability and Social Security benefits are approved: asking for help.

Doug, who asked The Herald Bulletin not to use his last name, spends his days sitting on the trunk of his old, red Chevrolet Spectrum with a cardboard sign: “Poor health. Can’t work. Please help. God bless.”

“I’m trying to get by like everybody else,” he said. “That’s the only reason I sit here and panhandle. I don’t really want to.”

Doug has been denied disability benefits twice and hopes his third application will go through. In the meantime, he waits, like an increasing number of Madison County residents who have lost their jobs and livelihoods, a result of either the strained economy or the ripple effects from the General Motors exodus from the county.

Nancy Vaughan, president of the United Way of Madison County, said that agency recently decided to shift its focus more toward fulfilling the basic needs of the community as more people fall into poverty. The organization will increase funding to that portion of its outreach.

“What agencies are telling me is that they are seeing a lot of people who are first-timers,” Vaughan said. “This is the first time they have sought help from a nonprofit. That’s been a trend for the past year.”

Doug wishes he didn’t have to seek others’ help. But he knew he had to do something to bring in income, as he grew tired of allowing family members to help him buy medication and gas for his car and keep up his little camp trailer residence.

“It’s a humbling experience, I’ll tell you,” he said. “It’s just I got to do something. I couldn’t depend on my relatives to take care of me. None of them’s got any money to speak of.”

Numbers show a growing problem

Although the last national poverty statistics released were from 2007, agencies around Madison County have been seeing an increase more recently.

“We have increased need and decreased funding,” Vaughan said. “We’d like to have more money to give them, but the reality is it’s not there. We know the demand is up so much.”

Since 2002, the United Way’s annual campaign contributions have fallen from $2.4 million to $925,000.

Vaughan said calls to 211, which assists county residents with finding needed services, were up, and the Salvation Army had a big increase in people it served, a large number being those who asked for help for the first time.

“Pantries have been having a hard time keeping shelves stuffed,” she said. “We were in front of this trend because we got hit with all the factory unemployment before the economy crumbled, so we’re a good two years into this. I don’t see it necessarily going a different direction right now. Hopefully we’re getting to the point where we start seeing a little bit of a turnaround.”