[Colorado] Poverty grows in wealth's shadow

from The Denver Post

Food-stamp aid, foreclosures soar. Experts blame the county's growth and say it's harder to get by "when you're poor in a rich community."

By Joey Bunch

Castle Rock - In Douglas County, one of the nation's fastest-growing and most affluent counties, the call of the needy is getting louder.

Requests for energy assistance, food stamps and welfare have risen by staggering rates over the past five years. Food- stamp cases alone are up 660 percent, from 108 cases to 821.

While the number of cases is modest compared with the county's population, Douglas officials worry that the worst is yet to come, pointing to an unknown number of "almost-desperate" residents - people living off credit cards and the equity of their homes.

"We don't know how many people are out there barely hanging on by their fingernails," said Suzanne Greene, executive director of the Task Force of Douglas County, a nonprofit agency that helps the needy with housing, utility, food and other costs.

Already, the county anticipates about 1,400 foreclosures this year, up from 270 homes in 2001 and 912 last year.

Across the country, wealthy counties are seeing greater demands for public assistance.

"It's just harder to survive when you're poor in a rich community," said Demetra Nightingale, a Johns Hopkins researcher studying the gap between Colorado's rich and poor.

String of misfortune

"Linda" is one of Douglas County's new poor.

Sitting in the offices of the Task Force of Douglas County assistance program Tuesday morning, she used such terms as "unimaginable" and "when we had money."

She grew up in Castle Rock, the daughter of a downtown businessman. Just two years ago, her life was stable.

But then Linda was laid off just as her husband's computer business began to slip. Meanwhile, the interest-only, adjustable- rate mortgage on the family's two-bedroom duplex swelled from $750 to $1,550 a month.

Now her family's clothes come from the thrift store and groceries from the food bank. She asked not to be identified.

The burst of the metro region's high-tech bubble left many Douglas County residents paying for more house than they can afford Families have milked the equity in their homes and maxed out credit cards.

And for those struggling financially, Douglas County is a challenging place to survive.

Douglas has the second-highest median income in the U.S. - $92,732, more than twice the national average.

The average home price is $311,060; the state average is $219,558.

The Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that a single parent with two preschoolers must earn $26.28 an hour, or $55,496 a year, to meet Douglas County's costs for housing, food, transportation, child care, health care and taxes.

In Denver, a single parent of two must earn $44,991, while the same parent in Alamosa County can make it on $27,509.

As costs rise faster than incomes, more people of the middle class are slipping into the ranks of the working poor, and society bears that cost, said Suzette Tucker-Welch, a senior analyst for the institute, which weighs government choices on families.

On top of public assistance, struggling families wind up in emergency rooms with no way to pay; businesses are forced to bus in low-income workers; schools take on more responsibility for child care, Tucker-Welch said.

"We all have a stake in creating viable, livable communities so we can all have our basic needs met," she said. "When that doesn't happen, we all end up paying."

No treading water

Analysts and county officials say it isn't easy to explain Douglas County's emerging class of residents who need public aid.

George Kennedy, director of human services for Douglas County, believes Douglas' plight is a byproduct of growth, as the county becomes a more urban community. The county is expected to add another 106,000 residents to its current 266,739.

"With more people coming in, you have more problems and different problems," Kennedy said.

Later this year, Douglas County agencies and charities will roll out the Hand-Up Program, an initiative to help struggling residents get ahead.

"It does no one any good for anyone to go under," said County Commissioner Melanie Worley, who is crafting the program. "It's a drain on our economy; it's a drain on our social-services budget."

While struggling residents can receive money for rent, power and food through Hand-Up, most will have to sign a contract promising to participate in counseling and meet career, money-management and family goals.

"We're going to continue to help people, but we're not going to continue to spend money just to allow people to tread water," Kennedy said.

For Linda, she's done all that the experts would recommend: After she lost her job, she got a teaching degree, then a master's degree. Until it closed in March, she taught at a private school in Greenwood Village.

Now she is hopeful that the county school system will give her a job.

"It's very humbling to have the life I've had and to come in here and say, 'I need help."