Saturday, January 13, 2007

Poverty growing in Central Texas

from News 8 Austin

January is Poverty Awareness Month and there are more people living below the poverty line in Central Texas than you might think.

News 8 Austin's Paul Brown spoke with Ellen Balthazar of the Basic Needs Coalition.

Q: Tell us about the Coalition, how this works.

A: The Basic Needs Coalition of Central Texas is a combination of over 30 private, public, nonprofit faith-based partners, who come together from different organizations to lead our community in creating solutions to secure the fact that our neighbors in need have the basics they need; housing, utilities and food.

Q: And to put it into perspective for us, in Travis County alone, who’s poor? How many people would you consider in the category of poor?

A: Well, there is an astonishing 16 percent of Travis County residents who live below the federal poverty guideline, which is $20,000 for a family of four in a year. Sixteen percent of our residents, that’s one in every six Travis County residents.

Q: Which is an amazing number. The group then that’s most affected by poverty, would you say there is one group most affected?

A: Well, many times when you think of poverty, you think of the homeless, here on the downtown streets, but actually, there are other groups that are more likely to be living in poverty. That would be people with physical disabilities; one and a half-times the average person. A person with a mental disability is twice as likely to live in poverty. An extraordinary statistic that has come out of a new data analysis indicates that almost half, 47 percent, of single moms with children under the age of five in Travis County live in poverty.

Q: Almost half.

A: Almost half. And, like I said, that’s $20,000 for a year. Southwest Texas State University has done research that indicates it takes almost $43,000 a year for a family to cover the basics of rent, utilities, food, childcare, transportation and healthcare in Central Texas.

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