Poverty rate in Kendall skyrockets

from Suburban Chicago News

Census Bureau confirms what social workers already knew

By JUSTINA WANG STAFF WRITER

The poverty rate in Kendall County more than quadrupled between 2005 and 2006, finally reaching a number experts have long said better reflects the growing number of poor in the area.

According to U.S. Census Bureau numbers released this week, 5.4 percent of people in Kendall County are living in poverty, up from 1.2 percent in 2005.

The increase comes as state and nationwide numbers show dips in overall poverty rates. The percentage of people living in poverty in Kane County also fell slightly from 8.9 percent in 2005 to 8.3 percent last year, while the rate was stagnant in DuPage County at 4.9 percent.

But the striking increase in Kendall County comes as no shock to those who have long contested that 2005's reported 1.2 percent figure far underestimated the actual poverty rate.

"I don't really think the increase was that large," said Cheryl Johnson, director of the Kendall County Health Department. "The 1.2 percent was nowhere near accurate. By our data, the poverty level was at least 4.2 or 4.3 percent in 2005. The increase was only about a percent."

Many social-service providers said they're hoping the new Census numbers will draw attention to the poor who have come almost unnoticed into the growing area, and the need for jobs and public transportation to help raise them out of poverty.

"The numbers speak for themselves," said Jeaness Medin, who runs Kendall County Food Pantry where more than a dozen new families have showed up each week for the last several months. "I think it's just in proportion with the way Kendall County is growing. It's not all the big, fancy houses. It's all these other people who don't have a place to go."

Other findings from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey:


• People in Kane, Kendall and DuPage counties continue to earn more than the state's median income of $52,006 and the national median income of $48,201. But while the state and nation's median incomes showed little change from 2005 to 2006, the median income in Kane County dropped $1,652, to $63,741. In Kendall, the median income rose $1,253, to $73,069; in DuPage, it rose $804, to $73,677.


• The percentage of people living in extreme poverty in Illinois and nationwide dipped 0.2 percent from 2005 to 2006. In the same time period, the rate climbed slightly in local counties. In Kane County, 4.1 percent of people live in extreme poverty, up from 3.6 in 2005. In Kendall, the percentage climbed from 1.2 to 1.9. In DuPage, the percentage rose slightly from 1.9 to 2.


• Deep racial disparities continue to exist among Aurora's poor. In 2006, 46.6 percent of black men and 30 percent of black women were in poverty, compared to just 2.6 percent of white men and 2.8 percent of white women. Fourteen percent of Hispanic males and 22.7 percent of Hispanic females also live below the poverty line in Aurora.


• In the East Aurora School District, 29.5 percent of children live in poverty; 17.6 percent do so in the West Aurora School District. By comparison, 2.8 percent of children in the St. Charles School District and 3.9 percent in Indian Prairie live in poverty.


• The gap between how much working men and women earn in Kane, Kendall and DuPage counties has widened by thousands of dollars, even as state and national disparities narrowed. And last year, gender inequalities in local wages remained far more pronounced than the differences across the U.S. and Illinois.

In Kendall and DuPage, men's salaries surpassed women's by more than $19,000. In Kane, the difference was more than $15,000. By comparison, the statewide gap was $11,434, and the national difference $9,561.