Today I want to continue on the subject of suburban poverty because it's a subject that has wide ranging impact. I want to deal with one family's story in order to put a face on suburban poverty. This story comes from a recent report on the "NBC Nightly News." It concerns a single mom in the State of Connecticut who wanted a better life for her daughter only to end up struggling just to keep a roof over their heads. Mother and daughter moved to the suburb of West Hartford in order to live in a nice, safe neighborhood with good schools. At the time, the mother was financially secure but a period of unemployment and the inability to find a new job that paid well knocked from that perch into the ranks of the working poor. Like many Americans, she's struggling against a weak economy. In her words, "I'm basically paying to say I live in West Hartford...It is worth it." Is it really? At what price is the American Dream?
The Brookings Institute estimated that the number of suburban poor rose by nearly 64 percent between 2000 and 2011, about 16.4 million, according to an analysis of 95 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. This is more than double the rate of growth for urban poor in those areas. Part of the problem is that poverty is still perceived as an urban or rural problem. The hard truth is that we have to acknowledge that it's rapidly becoming a suburban problem. In this particular case, the fact is the mother is single, which complicates matters, because poverty and financial insecurity occurs at higher rates among single moms than dads or two-parent households. Interesting, that single dads have a lesser rate of poverty and financial insecurity than single moms. To go off on a Sheryl Sandberg "Lean In" tangent for a moment. I would speculate that the reason is that women are given this mixed message from birth about having a career but must carry the burden of sacrificing upward mobility in the career for marriage and family. The whole either having it all or sacrificing it all for marriage and family with no in between. Oddly, single dads never have to make this choice. Anyway back to the subject. During the nineties, the rate of poverty among single mom improved dramatically thanks to a strong economy, more favorable tax breaks, the success of the welfare-to-work programs. What killed was two recessions and years of high unemployment.
This story began with the mother moving from the State of Massachusetts to West Hartford eight years ago for a job at a local rug retailer. The daughter made friends and took up lacrosse and is now in high school. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, West Hartford has a median household income of $80,061, more than double the median income for the City of Hartford which is $29,107. Yet the number of people in need of assistance has gone up rapidly. According to Susan Huleatt, the Human Services Manager for West Hartford, about five years a mobile van began coming once a month to distribute fresh produce to people in need. Now four vans come and more than 200 people line up for food.
The mother in the story accepts some of the blame for her situation. She expected to work at the rug retailer until retirement but quit after disputes with one of the owners. The mother went without unemployment or benefits for five months before obtaining work as a customer service representative. Her take home pay and child support barely leave enough. She is behind in the utilities bills, credit cards, and her daughter's lacrosse club. The mother has sold jewelry for cash and taken out a payday loan. The pair were forces to leave the house they were renting after she lost her job and roommate. They were able to get one-time aid from the city to help with a down payment on a less expensive apartment. Still, the rent takes up more than half of her monthly take home pay. Unable to afford health insurance, she went on Medicaid. Throughout this ordeal, the mother remains hopeful, continuing to applying for better paying jobs and hoping that a scholarship for her daughter to a someplace like the University of Florida will enable her to move to a warmer climate.
It's people like the mother in the story that put a face on what suburban poverty is like and will hopefully force a rethink of policy and politics.
(inplainsight.nbcnightlynews.com/_news/2013/03/22/174040578-sprawling-and-struggling-poverty-hits-americas-suburbs?lite=).
No comments:
Post a Comment