Poverty rate up in Pitt County

from The Greenville Daily Reflector

By Brock Letchworth
The Daily Reflector

Pitt County's poverty rate is above the state average, and officials say a lack of higher education skills is to blame.

Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau last week revealed that 19.4 percent of the county's residents live in poverty, while the rate statewide is just below 15 percent.

The numbers are from 2005, but state officials say they are the most recent statistics for income and poverty available.

Pitt County's situation can be attributed to a high dropout rate, Billy Ray Hall, president of the state's rural economic development center, said.

"People aren't completing high school or not completing it in a timely matter, and that translates into lower wages in the marketplace or no wages," Hall said. "It also translates to part-time jobs that keep people living, but the salaries they can command without higher education are hurting them worse and worse out in the workforce."

The poverty threshold for a single person under the age of 65 is $10,294, the U.S. Census Bureau says, while it is $13,167 for a family of two and $13,896 for a three-person household.

Pitt County's poverty rate increased by 1.6 percent from 2004.

The county's large college population is another reason for its high poverty rate, Catherine Moga-Bryant, senior research associate of the rural economic development center, said. College students are classified among the working-age population although many of them have little or no income.

"There tends to be a higher poverty rates in places with students, and that is one thing you need to keep in mind when looking at university towns or counties," she said.

Bryan Averette, income maintenance program administrator with Pitt County Social Services, said the poverty rate during the last couple of years has been evident by the increased number of applications for financial assistance at his office.

During the second quarter of the current fiscal year, social services provided 8,297 households with food and nutritional services, up from an average of 7,801 in the last fiscal year. The county last year also saw an increase of nearly 500 applications for crisis intervention assistance to help with the utility costs.

Averette said the effects of higher gas prices are partially to blame as they have affected the prices of groceries and other necessities.

"As prices go up, it is harder for individuals to make ends meet because salaries and a person's earning capability is not keeping up with the costs," Averette said.

Hall said the long-term solution for solving the poverty issue is getting people to attend school longer and obtain higher skills, while a short-term answer is finding on-the-job training for people who don't have enough education to qualify.

"Most people in rural areas are a good, hard-working group of people who want to work instead of being on welfare, but they go to work for low wages," Hall said. "We have to get people to stay in school and work because they have to do both to get along."

While it has a high rate of poverty compared to state statistics, Hall said Pitt County has been a beacon for people in poorer surrounding counties who commute to work. It is in much better shape than most counties in rural eastern North Carolina for that reason, he said.

"It looks a lot like rural America, but it is doing some great things as an economy," Hall said. "I don't want them to feel bad about what they are doing. They are doing pretty darn good. There is just a big problem out there."