Catholic charity aims at cutting poverty in half

from Inside Bay Area

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, MEDIANEWS STAFF

OAKLAND — The president of Catholic Charities USA visited Oakland on Thursday to talk about a campaign to cut poverty in half by 2020.

The ambitious goal requires health care, affordable housing and early childhood education, said the Rev. Larry Snyder.

The last few years have seen industry rust, casinos bloom and the gap between the comfortable and the desperate yawn wide, he said.

While the federal government has trumpeted the capacity of religious organizations to meet human needs, those agencies do not have the resources to take over the job, Snyder said.

Snyder, who heads the Virginia-based network of social service agencies, is stumping to encourage member agencies throughout the nation to push state and local lawmakers to beef up support services for needy individuals and families.

If Catholic Charities once primarily provided support services such as family counseling and tutoring, the bulk of people who come to its offices are now seeking emergency help, Snyder said.

"Half of our funds now go to emergency services," he said. The big increase is in the working poor. They make choices all the time, he said.

"What do we go without this month? They work very hard. Their jobs don't pay enough."

Catholic Charities helps more than 10,000 people in Alameda and Contra Costa counties each year, and the demand is growing, said Solomon Belette, president of Catholic Charities of the East Bay.

"Our agency has been coping with a steady increase in demand for emergency assistance, primarily among working families," Belette said.

It's not just a Catholic problem: 75 to 90 percent of its clients are from other faith backgrounds, he said.

Catholic Charities has lobbied Congress for years. But Snyder says the organization is now turning its focus to state and local governments, which are more likely to make reforms, such as raising the minimum wage or instituting universal health care.

Twenty-nine states, including California, have upped their minimum wage. In Massachusetts and California, universal health care is on the legislative table.

"If we look at the rate of poverty, it has been increasing over the past five years," Snyder said. "In 2006, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the welfare-to-work program. Everyone is taking credit for welfare rolls decreasing. At the same time, the number of people in poverty has gone up. I say, be careful what you celebrate."

In fact, census reports paint a frightening picture.

The number of people who qualify as poor by government measures stands at 37 million — a figure equal to the combined populations of Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

That number represents an increase of 5.3 million from 2000 to 2004.

Yet at least one person in two out of three families living below the poverty level is employed.

Last year, 25 million looked to food banks for meals, according to a report by America's Second Harvest Network — a hike of 18 percent over the past 10 years.

Among the solutions, Snyder said, are: a minimum wage that's indexed to the cost of living, universal health care, quality child care, affordable housing and progressive tax policies.

"And we always support the right of workers to organize," he said.

Snyder also says the government should not be doling out assistance to those who don't need it — Social Security for the well-to-do, or corporate subsidies and bailouts.

The numbers resonated with Deborah Reed, economist and researcher with the Public policy Institute of California.

"The lion's share (of the poor) are working," she said. "We haven't seen income growth. Essentially, incomes are where they were 30 years ago.

"One of the things research is showing ... is a lot of people are living close to the edge, without any savings to draw on," Reed said. "The high cost of health care can throw a family into the bracket where they need emergency help."

Although he is advocating state and local action, the November elections brought Snyder some confidence that change could come at the federal level as well.

"Many issues we've been working on for years will become a priority," he said. "It might be a little easier to get our items on the agenda."

MediaNews staff writer Rebecca Rosen Lum covers religion. Contact her at rrosenlum@cctimes.com.