More Macomb kids in poverty

from The Macomb Daily

Access to prenatal care also decreases; middle class losing ground
By Maryanne Kocis MacLeod
Macomb Daily Staff Writer

More than one in 10 children in Macomb County, or 10.7 percent, lives in poverty, up 45 percent from 2000, according to a report released today by Kids Count in Michigan. Macomb ranked sixth-best of Michigan's 83 counties.

Statewide, 18 percent of children live below the poverty rate, matching the national average, and placing Michigan at 27th overall. Nationally, 439,000 children lived in poverty as of 2004, compared to 354,000 in 2000.

"Child poverty is a tremendous concern in both Macomb County and the state, said Jane Zehnder-Merrell, a spokeswoman for the Michigan League for Human Services. "We've seen a huge erosion of economic stability; a lot more families are living on the margin."

Frank Taylor, director of the Macomb County Community Services Agency, was not surprised by the news.

"These results are pretty reflective of findings we released in November," Taylor said. "We have many more demands for services as a result. What we're seeing is a new group of individuals, previously considered middle class, falling into the poverty cycle."

With increasing unemployment and foreclosure rates, those numbers will continue to rise, said Angelo Nicholas, director of the Macomb County Department of Human Services.

"Many areas in Macomb are doing very well," Nicholas said. "Others are getting older and poorer. We've seen a parallel increase in the number of children coming into foster care. This often coincides with bad economic times, more allegations of abuse and neglect, more investigations ûour caseload jumps way up."

In neighboring Oakland County, Kids Count found that the child poverty rate zoomed up 42 percent from 7.1 to 10.1. While the percentage increase in Wayne was significantly lower û only 24 percent, a whopping 26.3 percent of children there live in poverty.

Kids Count of Michigan a service of the Michigan League of Human Services in collaboration with the federal government, monitors trends in child well-being using economic, health and educational factors.

One specific area Macomb needs to take a hard look at is access to pre-natal care, Zehnder-Merrell stressed. According to the report, one in five babies born in the county does not receive adequate pre-natal care, placing Macomb 37th of 83 counties; this statistic is further reflected in increased instances of low-birth rate and increased child-death rate.

"Access to prenatal care is the first step in ensuring that a child is properly cared for, for life," Zehnder-Merrell said. "This is an area Macomb County needs to take a serious look at and address."

A few pieces of good news: The number of local fourth-graders who achieved passing math scores on the MEAP test improved significantly. In 2000, 29.8 failed the math portion of the test; by 2006-2007 only13.8 failed, a 54 percent improvement, which mirrors the state trend. A 33 percent increase was recorded in eighth-grade math performance.

"Macomb has seen a big improvement in this area," Zehnder-Merrell, said.

Another positive: the teen pregnancy rate continues to drop. In 2000, 594 births to teen mothers were reported, or 25.3 per 1000 births; that number dropped to 504 in 2005, 20.3 per 1,000 births. Although statewide the teen birth rate is on the decline; Michigan's rate per 1,000 is significantly higher at 33.6 per 1,000 births.

Additional key findings: Although the study did not directly assess access to health care, one key indicator -- the rate of children hospitalized for asthma - jumped 41 percent in Macomb County, from 25 per 100,000 to 35 per 100,000.

"Hospitalization for asthma is something we should be able to manage with proper health care," said Tom Kalkofen, director of the Macomb County Health Department. "The good thing about such studies is they help determine where to put local resources; They help us figure out what problems we're going to address û or try to address û as state and federal dollars continue to shrink."

Oakland County did not experience a dramatic increase but its rate of hospitalization is similar to Macomb's, 35 per 10,000, for a 1 percent increase since 2000.

Macomb and Oakland, however, are doing significantly better than Wayne County where the rate jumped from 73 per 10,000 to 84 per 10,000; and Michigan where hospitalizations increased from 43 to 49 per 10,000.