Poverty up, new census figs show

New Census Bureau data indicates the poverty rate in Calaveras County went up from 2007 to 2008, but remained flat in Tuolumne County.

The real measure of poverty, some say, cannot be accurately depicted by government estimates, but by the amount of assistance provided by community and social service agencies.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports nationwide in 2008, 13.2 percent of people are living in poverty and in California, 13.3 percent were living in poverty.

The bureau sets the poverty income threshold at $21,834 for a household of two adults and two children. The poverty threshold for people living alone over the age of 65 is $13,030.
   

The poverty rate in Calaveras County increased from 10.3 percent in 2007 to 11.5 percent in 2008, Census data said.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Jeannie Hayward, director of the Resource Connection in San Andreas, upon hearing the poverty rates.

Over the last year the Resource Connection has seen a 23 percent increase in assistance, “and that’s a lot,” Hayward said.

For example, Hayward said, in October 2008, 506 families requested food and other services like energy assistance. In October 2009, 716 families were assisted.

Unemployment in Calaveras County was an average of 8.7 percent in 2008 and 6.4 percent in 2007, according to the Employment Development Department. Recent reports put its  unemployment at 14.3 percent in September.

The caseload has increased at Calaveras Works and Human Services, said Director Mary Sawicki.

From 2008 to 2009, the cash-aid caseload increased by 24.5 percent, Sawicki said.

According the Census Bureau report, the poverty rate in Tuolumne County has remained flat at 12.5 percent from 2007 to 2008.

“I’m not too surprised about that,” commented Larry Cope, director of the Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority.

Cope said the data likely hasn’t caught up with the real economic picture, which may be higher or lower than what the Census Bureau estimated.

He said the data is “an estimation,” based on information collected nationwide and plugged into mathematical formulas.

Cope commented that 12.5 percent is not “out of the norm,” and that “unfortunately, there’s always a segment of society that’s living in poverty.”

He said what is more telling is how many more people are asking for food and shelter assistance.

Cope added that while “every one is having a tough time,” there are “little glimmers of hope right now.”

In addition to trying to retain and attract business and entrepreneurship in Tuolumne County, the Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority, with various community partners, also offers business counseling and training to help promote family-wage jobs, Cope said. 

In Tuolumne County, the unemployment rate was 6.2 percent in 2007 and 7.9 percent in 2008, the EDD reports. Its unemployment rate in September was 12.7 percent, EDD said.

Though data reflects a flat poverty rate, social service agencies are still experiencing increased demand for assistance.

“We are absolutely still seeing a need,” said Ann Connolly, Tuolumne County Human Services Agency director.

For the fiscal year 2007-08, social services had 508 Cal Works, or cash aid, ongoing cases and for just the first four months of the 2009-10 fiscal year, the average number of Cal Works cases is 687, Connolly said.

In the 2007-08 fiscal year, there was an average of 1,427 food-stamp recipients. In 2008-09, the number jumped to an average of 1,846.       

Now, after the first four months of the 2009-10, there are 2,209 ongoing food-stamp cases, Connolly said.

Countywide, the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency Food Bank and various food pantries serve between 6,000 and 8,000 households, according to Director Lee Kimball.

In both Tuolumne and Calaveras counties, food banks are being inundated with assistance requests, officials say.

“I think what’s really telling, we just ran a report, as of the end of October there 3,419 children receiving assistance,” from either Cal Works, in foster care or receiving food stamps or Medi-Cal, Connolly said.

Census data indicates that in school districts in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties, between 6 percent and 24 percent of students are living in poverty.

Bret Harte Union School District has the lowest poverty rate in both counties, 6 percent, and Columbia Union Elementary District has the highest in both counties, 24 percent.

However, because of the amount of students with low socio-economic status, the district receives Title I and Rural Education Achievement Program aid, said John Pendley, Columbia superintendent.

The additional funding goes back into educating students, Pendley said.

The district also contributes funds so that the county-run BOB Health Van is on campus each Monday for students.

Pendley said school officials let families know about the Healthy Families Program, which offers low-cost insurance for children, and the district has a list of services of everything from “tutors to mental health services,” they refer needy families to, Pendley said.