When the Syracuse Rescue Mission served Thanksgiving dinner this year, about 2,000 people were at the table.
That’s up about 250 from last year. “We’re seeing an average of 100 more people a day coming in for meals,” said Liz Poda, director of marketing for the Syracuse Rescue Mission.
The increase is flesh-and-blood proof of a growing poverty rate across the nation and in Syracuse, say experts on poverty and those who serve the poor. The U.S. government defines poverty as having an income of $11,170 for a single person, or $23,050 for a family of four.
Consider the numbers:
- Nationally, 16.1 percent of Americans live below the poverty line, according to a Census Bureau report released in early November.
- In Syracuse, 36.7 percent of residents — or 53,270 people– live below the poverty line, according to a Nov. 15 report released by the Fiscal Policy Institute. It is an independent, nonpartisan nonprofit research organization in Albany and New York City.
- Today, 53 percent of children — those under the age of 18 – in Syracuse live in poverty, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute report. Nationally, this number is 18.1 percent – with Syracuse’s childhood poverty higher by 34.9 percent.
The causes of the growing poverty rate are job-loss, unequal access to education and the weak economy, say the experts. And with the looming threat of federal and state budget cuts, those experts worry anti-poverty programs will shrink.
“Nationally, it’s a huge concern. Locally, it’s a more concentrated problem,” said David Van Arsdale, an Onondaga Community College sociology professor who has researched poverty.
Among the solutions from Van Arsdale and others:
- Better job-creation
One of the reasons poverty rates are on the rise is because of job-loss, Van Arsdale said. Full-time jobs with secure hours and higher wages are being replaced by temporary, minimum-wage jobs that don’t allow people to get out of poverty.
“We live in an era when most people work part-time,” Van Arsdale said.
Creating jobs is important, he said, but what’s more important is that the government creates full-time, secure jobs rather than temporary ones. “It’s about work, bottom-line,” he said.
The new health care law, called the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, defines full-time employees as those working 30 hours a week. Employers will be required to provide full-time employees with healthcare insurance. That’s a help to many without health insurance, but Varn Arsdale and others say the law also carries the risk that some employers will hire more part-time, minimum-wage workers to avoid the expense of health insurance.
“Unfortunately, it’s the poor population that only has access to those jobs,” Van Arsdale said.
Employees also need secure work hours and higher wages so that they are more motivated to work rather than collect unemployment, he said. He suggested requiring some work by those who get government aid through social safety-net programs.
“Let’s attach our safety net to a limited number of work hours,” Van Arsdale said. “Bring some dignity back to work. People want to work.”
- Broader access to education
Unequal access to education is the strongest cause of poverty rates increasing, said Syracuse University emeritus professor Dale Tussing, who specializes in studying poverty.
“If you don’t have a high school diploma, if you don’t have a skill, then there aren’t very many jobs,” he said.
Education is mostly locally-funded, he said, and so poorer areas have less to spend on education than wealthier areas. That, said Tussing, only perpetuates the problem.
- A healthier economy
One of the reasons poverty rates are on the rise is because of the weak economy, Tussing said. “As the economy rises, poverty falls, and vice-versa,” he said.
A short-term solution to fight these growing poverty rates would be for government to implement some kind of direct, object employment program, Tussing said.
But some argue the government should stay out of the job market altogether. Christian Padgett, vice chair of the Libertarian Party of New York, said cutting out “unnecessary” government regulations would help people who want to start businesses and create more jobs for those in need.
“If you make it difficult for people to start businesses and hire more people, that’s going to make it harder to hire people and get them out of poverty,” he said. Padgett added, “We need to get the government really out of the way, let businesses grow and help people get jobs.” For those in poverty, he said, “A job is the best way out.”
But those who provide services to the poor worry that federal funding to anti-poverty programs and organizations will drop as the government works to lower the deficit and reduce its budget.
At the Syracuse Rescue Mission, Liz Poda, the director of marketing, frets that private charities need more help in serving the poor. The Mission does not get much federal funding, she said. But even a slight drop would hurt its ability to serve the poor.
“Everything trickles down,” Poda said. And if area residents face higher taxes or lose jobs in the weak economy, she said, the Rescue Mission could lose out on donations. Those make up 25 percent of the organization’s funding.
Agencies like the Rescue Mission need to receive both financial support and community support to combat issues of poverty, hunger and homelessness, she said. “If these agencies don’t exist, you could have thousands of people in this community who would have nowhere to go,” Poda said. “You would have people going hungry and living on the street.”
(Stephanie Bouvia is a senior newspaper journalism major.)
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