Poverty persists in Pittsburgh
(Editor’s Note: This series represents a partnership between the New Pittsburgh Courier, Point Park University and Pittsburgh Community Services, an anti-poverty program at the Hill House.)
After five years of helping the hungry get enough food to eat, Rochelle Jackson’s definition of poverty is simple: it’s not having enough to survive and live a pleasurable life.
Leeretta Payne, a social worker on a mission to assist the low-income, takes it one step further. She sees it as having to make choices, which living in this country in the 21st century, no one should have to make. For instance, choosing to pay your medical bills and housing costs means more and more people don’t have enough to buy food.
Neither of them counts themselves among the poor.
But their work—with three separate agencies that battle poverty—puts them close enough to the pain.
Each sees the struggle as thousands strive to make ends meet in Pittsburgh, a city whose rates of people living in poverty are almost double that of the national level.
Over the past few years the number of people in Pittsburgh living below the government defined poverty level has nearly doubled. Out of the 50 states, Pennsylvania is ranked 30th for it percentage of the poor. In Pittsburgh, poverty outpaces the state level by two-fold.
According to 2005 census data, Pennsylvania is tied with Washington State with 11.9 percent of its population in poverty. The national percentage is still higher at 13.3 percent, but Pittsburgh overshadows both numbers with 23.2 percent of its residents living at poverty’s door.
The U.S. determines poverty with two separate standards: a “threshold” and a set of “guidelines.” The threshold is a sliding system that defines a minimum income dependent on the number of people and children in a household. Guidelines are similar but much simpler. They rely simply on the number of individuals in a family or home. This year, the Department of Health and Human Services set the guideline for a family of four at $20,000. For an individual, the minimum income is $9,800.
In 2001, after the country’s last major census, Pittsburgh reported 10.3 percent of individuals below the poverty line. By 2004, that number had reached 18.8 percent. The most recent survey in 2005 revealed another large surge, putting the city at 23.2 percent.
And in a city that continues to struggle with its economic growth, these numbers come as no surprise.
“What I’m seeing in Pittsburgh is there’s a real disconnection between what people earn and what the cost of living is,” said Adrienne Walnoha, the Interim Executive Director for Community Human Services Corp., a social service agency that serves Allegheny County.
“The housing wage—the amount people need to earn to afford decent two-bedroom apartment, is over $12 an hour but that doesn’t mean there are jobs available that pay that,” she said.
“I think [the Census numbers are] pretty accurate. But the way things are now, the way the economy is going now, we’re going to continue to see a rise in poverty,” said Jackson, a Child Nutrition Advocate for Just Harvest.
“The percentage might be slightly higher,” said Payne, the Associate Director of Technology and Operations at Pittsburgh Community Services Inc, a Hill District agency that for 40 years has been aimed at alleviating poverty. Payne also noted the types of people she sees living in poverty each day.
“I think the perception is its mainly African-American females, or teenagers, which certainly that population does have poverty, but once the stats are done in more communities it will be found that poverty may be pretty even through all races,” Payne said.
U.S. census data shows this may not be the case just yet.
According to the 2005 census, the city’s African-American population bears a majority of the poverty. Nearly 39 percent are below the poverty level. By comparison, 16.3 percent of whites fall below the same line. Additionally, more than 17,000 children in Pittsburgh are poor, accounting for 31.4 percent of the city’s youth.
Payne sees poverty as more than just numbers.
The misconception about poverty is that the people are in low-paying jobs, without jobs or without higher education, said Payne. But the reality is poverty grips families where both parents work and have higher education.
“The face of poverty could be someone who is working eight hours a day,” she said.
And in Pittsburgh, poverty isn’t limited to the areas where it is seen out in the open.
“It’s a widespread epidemic. There are pockets of poverty in a number of different places. There’s actually poverty in Fox Chapel. We wouldn’t think so but there actually is,” Jackson said. And for a city that is struggling to overcome economic hardships, these women fear the numbers may increase.
“I think a lot more people are becoming aware that these issues exists and a lot of people are feeling the affects because they lost their jobs and can’t provide for their families,” Jackson said.
Joni Rabinowitz, the Co-Director for Just Harvest, agreed.
“A lot of people that were able to make ends meet previously can’t now. And I think more people are recognizing that even they themselves are facing economic problems,” she said.
Walnoha disagrees. She doesn’t see a growing concern, but rather an ignorance of the growing problem.
“I don’t know that the general community realizes there are people living in very serious poverty here,” she said.
“They think it’s in other countries but not right where they are.”
And in a city where the numbers are on the rise, there is no easy way out.
“Most people in the United States,” Jackson said, “are one paycheck, one major illness away from poverty.”