POULSBO — A monthly budget of $266 would provide a sliver of what most families require, but “it’s better than nothing,” Rose Malott said.

She would know; Malott and her husband, Paul Irish, live in their car in Poulsbo. Both are jobless and receive $266 a month from the Department of Social and Health Services as their only source of income.

Already, their money is nearly gone for the month of March.

“It’s definitely a test of survival,” Malott said.

There are more first-time homeless seeking assistance than ever, say organizers of North Kitsap Fishline, where job losses and foreclosures have turned former food bank donors into food bank clients. Fourteen homeless households were served at Fishline in the month of February alone.

“They’re coming to us so confused and so lost because they don’t know where to turn,” said Karen Timken, Fishline executive director. “They don’t know what’s out there.”

It’s on the homeless that Fishline employees are focusing their efforts, working to provide temporary shelter and first month’s rent for those turned out to the cold. Fishline is holding its annual spring drive, an effort that supports its homeless programs, now through April 30. Timken hopes to raise $60,000 and 120,000 pounds of food.

For Malott and Irish, Fishline has provided shower and laundry vouchers, food, clothes and blankets to keep warm.

“Whatever we can do to get them comfortable,” client advocate Raelenea Rodriquez said.

Homeless seeking Fishline’s services jumped 44 percent in 2010, and a similar increase is expected in 2011. Emergency shelter was provided for 185 people and rent assistance for more than 200 households last year.

The organization has teamed with the hunger-fighting Feinstein Foundation, which will match a percentage of spring drive donations from the community. In past years, the foundation has given Fishline several thousand dollars in matching funds. It provides a way for donors to “give more without giving more,” Timken said.

“Anybody that donates really leverages their dollars,” she added.

Malott and Irish depend on Fishline and other community services to get by. They attend free community meals and have stayed the night at First Lutheran Church when temperatures dipped below freezing.

Their 2000 Toyota RAV4 is packed tightly with boxes and plastic bags, items they shuffle around each night in a bid for precious space. Leg room and reclining seats are a small luxury in a life of few comforts.

“Our little nest, I call it,” Malott said.

Fuel is a constant concern. Nighttime temperatures are hard on Malott, who has arthritis, so the couple must frequently start the engine for heat. Irish yawns several times during his interview for this story, a testament to the quality of his sleep, he says. Besides, he likes to keep an eye out through the night, just in case.

The couple, who met in 2004, came to the West Coast in 2007 with the promise of a job in California for Irish. When those plans fell through, they traveled to Tacoma. Irish found work as a janitor and Malott as a gas station attendant. But when a family member became sick the next year, they returned home to Louisville, later staying for a time in Oklahoma, where they worked and lived with a friend for free and were able to save up money.

By June 2010 they had returned to the Northwest, living in a camper near family in Suquamish. Both had filed for disability benefits and could not work — or risked being disqualified from the program. Unable to stay with family, the two were left with their RAV4 and a trailer of storage items they have stashed and hope is where they left it. They’ve dealt with dead car batteries and flat tires, and have learned to cook hot dogs on their exhaust headers.

Malott and Irish are on two different lists awaiting subsidized housing and scour Craigslist for free RV ads. Malott said they take things one day at a time, awaiting the first of their court dates to determine eligibility for disability benefits.

Meanwhile they eat sandwiches, donuts, Mountain Dew and peanut butter, whatever staples they can keep relatively fresh. For fun, they listen to the radio. And for perseverance, they pray.

“No matter how far down we get something happens and God always lifts us up out of that depressed state,” Malott said. “He always gives us what we need. Not what we want but what we need.”

Last year, Fishline raised $47,000 during its spring drive. The drive is the only of its kind the organization holds each year, and its held at a time when donations are typically at a trickle. After the holidays, giving tends to decline until after the summer months.

More information can be found at www.nkfishline.org. Money donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 1517, Poulsbo, WA 98370.

Timken said gifts of funds are especially helpful, because Fishline is able to stretch its dollars. Through its connections, $10 buys $13 worth of food.

Timken acknowledged the difficulty of giving in a down economy.

“There’s so much need and I know how hard it is for the community because the community is suffering too,” she said. “Pennies are great. Every little bit helps.”