All you’ve done your entire life is work with your hands. Building, wiring, framing. It’s a tough job, but it’s one you own - the bitter taste of long hours in the sun are offset by the tangible sweetness an honest, good-sized paycheck brings home to your wife and two children. Work is booming and a hard days’ work has never gone further - until, one day, the phone stops ringing.

Welcome to the life of former Bithlo area resident, 29-year-old Kenneth Cross. Several years ago, Cross worked in the construction industry, partnered with his brother Leo, framing roofs of residential homes at a hectic pace. But, as the economy took a downturn in Central Florida, the residential housing market crashed and Cross was left with no work and little hope.

“About three years ago it started to get so slow and if there was work, no one was paying anything,” he says. “My brother and I were just getting into making good money and if it had lasted just a little bit longer, we would’ve been alright.”

Instead, Cross was forced to take up an on-again, off-again landscaping position to help make ends meet. His family has been forced to use food stamps to eat. His wife has become almost the sole supporter for the household, still struggling to survive and raise two young children.

When the calls stopped coming in, Cross remembers being concerned first, then angry at what was going on around him. “I was concerned because we were hurting for money,” he says. “After doing so well for a long period of time, working steady - to go to not making money was rough.”

Then the anger set in. According to Cross, when there was work, it was being given to illegal immigrants who would underbid projects and work for pennies on the dollar. “You just couldn’t do it as cheap or as fast because they had so many guys,” he remembers. “There was nothing we could do to compete.”

Down but certainly not out, Cross decided that it was time for a change. He was going to use his construction skills for something else - he was going to build himself a new career.

Deciding to temporarily put down the hammers and pick up the books, Cross enrolled himself at Valencia Community College and began pursuing a degree in engineering. “I wanted to stay in construction because I’ve already got the experience there,” he says. “My goal for the future, what I’d really like to do, is design the roof trusses on houses after the architect gets done with the initial plans.”

However, with just a few semesters to go before earning his degree from Valencia, an old contact came calling - he had work installing siding on apartments. Not wanting to turn the opportunity to make money and provide for his growing family, Cross stepped away from his education to become the chief family earner again. But, just like the construction industry, the work isn’t steady.

“I work whenever he has work, sometimes it’s a few days a week, sometimes it’s more; last time I worked four days straight, but I’ve been out of work for a little over a week because he hasn’t had any for me to do it,” says Cross. “It’s sporadic at best.”

Cross has now missed the last two semesters of school in favor of providing for his family. But, perhaps most importantly, through the entire situation, he has never given up.

“Its been a tough road, but we’ve made the most of it,” he says.

Article by Corey Gehrold