Poverty gets new analysis

Study prompted by remaining problems identified by
the Indiana Coalition on Housing and Homeless Issues
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By Micah Maidenberg - Indiana Daily Student - January 17, 2003

Bloomington, IN - Nearly six years after changes to the nation's
welfare policy, poverty remains a major problem in Indiana,
according to the 2002 Indiana Self-Sufficiency Standard, released
last Tuesday.

The study comes at a precipitous economic moment in the state.
Indiana is currently running an $850 million dollar deficit,
national unemployment rates stand at an eight-year high and
claims for social programs that serve low income and working
class families are increasing as funds and eligibility for these
programs, such as childcare assistance, are cut.

Commissioned by the Indiana Coalition on Housing and Homeless
Issues, the study updates similar research conducted in 1998 and
provides a different benchmark for measuring poverty other than
the federally established guideline.

The study measures how much different families units -- for
example, a single adult with an infant and a preschooler or two
adults with a preschooler -- in different areas of the state must
earn, through earnings and government programs, to meet basic
needs.

Unlike calculations of poverty based on guidelines set by the
federal government, this study includes costs of housing, child
care, food, transportation, healthcare and other necessities.

"The official level is outdated. The poverty level was created in
the mid 1960s based on a basic program. Take the cost of food and
make food a third of your costs," Beryl Cohen, a project director
for ICHHI, said. "In the 1960s when it was created, two parents
were in the home, which is no longer typical. There's nothing (in
the official poverty level) about child care, nothing about
geography, nothing about the ages in the family."

Diana Pearce, a professor at the University of Washington who has
researched sufficiency standards for other states and testified
before Congress, conducted the study on Indiana. She also thought
that the federal poverty level was not a reliable indicator of
poverty.

"With the Self-Sufficiency Standard, we find a different view of
poverty. We get a much more nuanced view of who is poor and what
people need to meet basic needs," Pearce said. "My guess is we're
going to find two to three times as many people who don't have
adequate income when comparing the official poverty level with
the self-sufficiency standard."

According to the study, child care and housing needs are the most
expensive costs for families. Cohen gave the example of a single
adult in the Bloomington area with an infant and a preschooler.

To achieve self-sufficiency, this adult would have to earn at
least $17 per hour to be self-sufficient. Childcare costs $970
for two kids per month in Bloomington, according to the study. Of
course, that same family unit could be self-sufficient on a lower
wage if they had childcare assistance.

"It's hard for people to understand how much basic needs really
cost," Cohen said. "If you don't have children in childcare, you
won't know it can cost between $300 and $500 dollars a month for
childcare. That can be eye opening for people."

ICHHI's study is tied, in many ways, to changes in welfare policy
enacted under former President Clinton in 1997. Under that plan,
the guaranteed income for low income workers was discarded and
welfare rolls plummeted as former recipients entered into the
entry-level job market.

States used block grants from the federal government to establish
job training, childcare and other programs to support former
recipients. But with the economic downturn, some of these
programs are already in jeopardy.

Indiana's child care assistance program, for example, dropped
6,700 families from the program in October, as other claims for
that funding increased with the sluggish economy.

But these work supports, including food stamps, childcare
assistance and Medicaid, are crucial for families to achieve
self-sufficiency, according to the study, especially if the
higher wage jobs are unavailable.

"Many of these families that have trouble making ends meet, even
when they have jobs and even when they're above minimum wage,"
Pearce said. "That kind of wage isn't enough to meet needs. These
families face choices between paying for, say childcare and rent
or healthcare and food."

Locally, the unemployment rate stood at 2.9 percent in November
-- one of the lowest rates in Indiana -- when the last figures
were released said Richard Rampley, a program director of
Bloomington's Indiana's Workforce Development office. Rampley
said he was optimistic about the city's job market.

"We have a well-educated workforce in Bloomington," Rampley said.
"It seems as if things are slowly starting to move forward. We
have seen a few more requests for job hires from employers, but
instead of climbing by 30 or 60 new hires, we're seeing 30 to 33
instead. We're seeing much smaller increases."

Rampley's office helps coordinate job trainings and searches and
workshops on how to build a resume and address "skill
deficiencies," which must be addressed to access better jobs, he
said.

"There are some higher paying, high skill jobs that are coming
into the community, but they're not coming in fast enough. They
do require skills," Rampley said. "We spend a lot of time helping
people developing those skills."

Pearce said that while the study did not reveal anything
particularly unique about Indiana in comparison to other states,
she did say the studies, this one included, reveal that expenses
are more than people usually think.

"These are bare bones budget. There's no happy meals, no pizzas,
no lattes," Pearce said. "Unless we push up wages and provide
supports, it's totally unfair to families to hold out the promise
that finding a job is the answer."

© 2003 Indiana Daily Student
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source page: http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=14008

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