[Washington] Activists take poverty agenda to the streets

from The Olympion Online

Issue tied to many bills in 2006

BY ADAM WILSON

Jeff Carrol said he landed his job remodeling houses in a grocery store, when his future boss heard him talking about needing work.

“That's all you have to tell him, you want to work,” Carroll said. “But you have to drum it into these legislators — I want to work. They don't hear you the first time, so you have to repeat it several times.”

Carrol, a father of four from Spokane, said he's been active in low-income issues after he ran into the stigma of being jobless for the first time at the age of 40. He and about 250 parents, students and activists marched to the Capitol on Monday in a rally organized by several anti-poverty groups on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“They helped sponsor us so we could talk to our legislators. So they could see the faces of poverty,” Carrol said. “People talk about poverty like we were a disease. We're the people who built this country. We're the people fighting in Iraq.”

Activists from the Statewide Poverty Action Network said poor people are falling further behind because the federal government has left welfare funding flat since 1998 and the state cut its programs during the budget crunch of 2002-04.

“They think they can get away with this, but they can't if we show up — and we have shown up,” Sylvia Arthur, chairwoman of the network, yelled at those who had walked through rain and wind to gather on the Legislative Building steps.

The hundreds of people in the crowd roared their approval, and they cheered Speaker of the House Frank Chopp as he outlined some of his own priorities for the 60-day session.

“We have a tremendous housing boom out there, that's why we've got a little extra revenue,” he said through a bullhorn. “But it badly impacts people who are homeless, who are poor, who are disabled, who are victims of domestic violence. We've got to set aside some of that money to help people get a decent home.”

Those participating had been briefed on how to lobby legislators Monday morning, and dispersed into the Capitol to talk to the politicians who will decide what to do with a projected budget surplus of $1.4 billion.

“Child care's too expensive. They've made cuts in housing, so people's rent is going up. They've restricted use of food stamps. So our lot has not improved,” said Arthur, heading up the stone steps.

Low-income activists who wanted to have more of a voice in Olympia asked for the rally, she added. “We have a hard time getting here as poor folks. It's not that we don't care.”

Poverty Voice, a publication sponsored by the action network and other groups, reports that 612,000 Washington residents live below the federal poverty line, but that number is low because the federal level is well below what a family needs to survive.

The federal line is $16,090 a year for a family of three, the equivalent of one person making $7.74 an hour full time, according to the state.

The poverty groups contend 1.7 million state residents make 80 percent or less of the state median wage, which is $44,158 a year — more than $20 an hour.

Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County, spoke to the anti-poverty groups in the morning, noting that the first bill passed and signed into law this session provides financial help to low-income families facing unusually high energy bills.

“We want, in the long run, to eliminate poverty, and you do that step by step,” she said.