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Nicole Swinson knew things were difficult for single mothers, but she didn't know just how difficult until she saw the numbers in black and white.

Families headed by a single woman make up 15 percent of county families, but they account for 47 percent of the county's families with incomes below the federal poverty line.

In 2007, about 13 percent of the 38,889 single mothers in the county lived in poverty.

"I was alarmed at the study. The truth was we were one paycheck away from poverty. We think we're making it, but we're really not," Swinson said about herself and the county's other single mothers. "I didn't feel like it as I was going along and taking care of my children, but when I saw the numbers, it motivated me to do more."

Last week, the county's Commission for Women released the statistics as part of its "Single Mothers and Poverty" study, focusing on the challenges confronting single mothers in the county.

The study is a compilation of existing data from the county, state and federal government and Census figures. From the data, the commission developed an agenda of recommendations in six categories: education, employment, child care, income supports (including child-support payments), health care and housing.

The county's high cost of living, coupled with disparities in pay, mean Montgomery County can be a difficult place for single mothers despite the numerous assistance programs, said Tedi S. Osias, chairwoman of the commission's Mothers and Poverty Committee, which conducted the two-year survey and made the recommendations.

"The face of poverty is a woman's face, and much of the time it is a mother's face," says the first line of the study.

Swinson's youthful face belies the tough times she can recant during her 10 years in the county.

A former Washington, D.C., resident, Swinson, 39, came to the county to care for her three children — including two with disabilities — after her husband left her. In the process, the children got dropped from his health insurance. After losing her job at Reagan National Airport after the Sept. 11 attacks, Swinson also lost her health insurance.

"That was one of the most memorable moments after losing my job," she said. "Most disappointing to me was that I had worked, and I knew there were programs out there to help me, but it took a long time to get help."

The family went without health care for a year before receiving government-funded health care.

"I had to keep it together," she said, "because if the kids saw that I was breaking, they would break, too."

Swinson's story is indicative of the single mothers represented in the commission's study, including the 21 percent of unmarried women with no health insurance, the 72 percent of single-mother households that apply for public housing and those who earn almost 60 percent less than the county's median income.

The most difficult part of being a single mother is "not having enough money to do the things that I need to do or even some things that I want to do," Allison Kemp said.

Kemp, a self-professed "late-age" mother, had her second child at 41; at the same time, her son turned 18.

"[Parenting] takes up all of my time. If I had someone else there to help they could do some of those things that need to be done," she said.

Instead, she begins her day at 6:30 a.m. and squeezes in work, household chores, errands, meals and playtime with her 5-year-old daughter before repeating the routine the next day.

At the same time, the Silver Spring resident is trying to improve her credit, pay down debt and pay child care.

"Child care is expensive, and with that and other [necessities], they take up any savings you try to have," said Kemp, 46. "So a chance for getting ahead is hard."

Aside from just presenting the statistics, the commission's ultimate goal is to help the county's single mothers get ahead. Each of the six categories highlighted in the study includes policy recommendations, ranging from lobbying for changes in laws affecting women to streamlining the county's many and varied assistance programs.

"It is important to connect the study with priorities for women in Montgomery County," said Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg, who has successfully lobbied to expand many of the assistance programs aimed at the county's neediest residents — including single mothers.

"We have to push this agenda on the state level and keep talking about this information," Trachtenberg said. "Together, we can make a difference."

Trachtenberg (D-At large) of North Bethesda has had help on the council from Valerie Ervin, the council's only single mother.

Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring frequently tells her story of raising two sons alone while going to college and working as a Safeway grocery store checker years ago. Her sons are now 27 and 21, but her past struggles motivate her commitment to help other single mothers, she said.

During her tenure as a school board member, and now as a council member, Ervin has pushed for universal pre-kindergarten throughout the county.

"My advice for single mothers is to stay in school or go back to school because the trajectory for single moms should be the same as everyone else," Ervin said. "Your children's success is similar to your attainment. It shouldn't be any different for a single mother."

For Swinson and Kemp, two of the county's single mothers fortunate enough to participate in a five- to seven-year county self-sufficiency program run by the Housing Opportunities Commission for the past 11 years, the difference lies in the partially subsidized housing they receive and an escrow account due to them at the end of the program.

"The whole point of housing is stability," said Nancy Scull, director of the comprehensive Self-Sufficiency Program. "If you don't know where you're sleeping at night, don't have a place to go, you can't have children who go to school and be successful, parents can't apply for jobs. You're much too stressed."

About 90 percent of the clients in the program are single parents, and 96 percent of those are single mothers.

"The stability of subsidized housing, which is what we provide, is critical to anybody's success, especially single parents," Scull said.

As a single mother, you have to set a goal for yourself and stick to it, Swinson said. "I love to share my story, because people don't know what I've been through."

Single and struggling

15% of county families headed by single women

47% of single-woman families have incomes below federal poverty line

Maryland one of 14 states requiring women to apply for child support before receiving child-care subsidies

33.5% ($25m) of child support in the county went uncollected in fiscal 2008

21% of single women in the county have no health insurance

72% of households applying for public housing in 2008 in county headed by single women

$52,960 average annual income needed in 2008 to pay market rent for two-bedroom housing

$45,022 median income for female-headed county households