ALTADENA , California ( CNN ) -- When she was laid off in February , Patricia Guerrero was making $ 70,000 a year . Weeks later , with bills piling up and in need of food for her family , this middle-class mother did something she never thought she would do : She went to a food bank . Patricia Guerrero was laid off in February . Desperate to make ends meet , she recently went to a food bank . It was Good Friday , and a woman helping her offered to pay her utility bill . `` It brought tears to my eyes , and I sat there and I cried . I was like , 'This is really where I 'm at ? ' `` she told CNN . `` I go 'no way ; ' [ but ] this is true . This is reality . This is the stuff you see on TV . It was hard . It was very hard . '' Guerrero is estranged from her husband and raising her two young children . She 's already burned through her savings to help make ends meet , and is drawing unemployment checks . She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $ 2,500 a month . In fact , her mother moved in with her to help pay the bills . Guerrero even applied for food stamps , but was denied . Watch Guerrero describe going to food bank » . `` I never used the system . I 've been working since I was 15-and-a-half . I needed it now and it turned me down , '' she said . Stories like Guerrero 's are becoming more common as middle-class Americans feel the pinch of an economic downturn , rising gas prices and a housing crunch , especially in a state like California that has been rocked by foreclosures . On Wednesday , a key government report on the battered housing market found new home sales fell to their lowest level in 13 years in February , suggesting the nation 's housing market is still struggling . Americans also have been attending in large numbers foreclosure fairs where mortgage lenders , financial planners and counselors offer tips to hard-hit homeowners . `` Our economy is struggling , and families in the 'Inland Empire ' and across the nation are hurting , '' California Rep. Joe Baca said , referring to an area of Southern California in his district . `` Our housing market is in a state of crisis due to rampant abuses of sub-prime lending , and unemployment is rising . At the same time , the cost of necessities such as gas , healthcare , and education continue to rise . '' Map : Foreclosures state-by-state » . Daryl Brock , the executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank in California 's San Bernardino and Riverside counties , said his organization supplies food to more than 400 charities in metro Los Angeles , from homeless shelters to soup kitchens to an array of food banks . While the majority of people they help are working poor families , he said they have seen some major changes . In the last 12 to 18 months , Brock said , the agencies he supplies have begun seeing more middle-class families coming to their doors . `` Our agencies have said there is an increasing number of people coming to them for help , '' Brock told CNN by phone . `` Their impression was that these were not people they normally would have seen before . They seemed to be better dressed . They seemed to have better cars and yet they seemed to be in crisis mode . '' He added , `` The only thing they can do is give us anecdotal evidence that they think it 's because of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and the housing crisis . '' See recent trends of foreclosure filings » . A former loan processor , Guerrero knows all about that , although so far she has been able keep her house . She used her tax refund to help pay many of her bills for the first two months , but now that money 's gone . She says she 's now in a middle-class `` no-man's-land . '' `` It just happened so fast . It happened in a matter of -- what -- two months , '' she said . She 's eager to get back to work and to hold onto her home until the market turns . But for this single mom , every day it becomes harder to hang on . `` It 's just depressing , '' she said . `` For me , I just do n't want to get out of bed , but I have to . That 's my hardest thing . I have to . '' E-mail to a friend . CNN 's Gregg Canes contributed to this report .
Patricia Guerrero went from making $ 70,000 to drawing unemployment checks . Desperate to feed her kids , she recently went to a food bank for the first time . Expert says charities are reporting a rise in middle-class families at food banks . Guererro : `` It just happened so fast . It happened in a matter of -- what -- two months ''