Census data shows

a rise in poverty rates
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Poverty rates in Watauga County have risen by more than 50 percent in the first half of the decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

The Census Bureau released its midpoint estimates last week, projecting changes in poverty rates from the 2000 Census to 2005. Watauga’s rate at the turn of the century was 14 percent, but is now an estimated 21.8 percent. The number living in poverty rose from 5,344 to 8,068 during that time, out of a total estimated population of 42,700.

That increase has materialized in agencies that provide services for poor or low-income people. “It’s been rising over the past five or six years. One of the contributing factors is high energy costs,” Angela Miller, executive director of WAMY Community Action, said.

She said WAMY’s home weatherization progam and its heating assistance program had been strained by the increased need even while budgeting remains tight.

“People have been heavily utilizing the heating assistance program,” Miller said. “We audit the home for energy savings insulate attics, floors and windows, and help clean and repair heating systems. Since it was so hot last summer, we installed a number of air conditioners.”

Miller said regionally the loss of jobs had led to more poverty, though Watauga County’s unemployment rate is traditionally among the lowest in the state. The overall performance of the economy, which some have characterized as a recession, is also a contributing factor, in addition to higher costs for child care. Miller said loss of jobs often led people to lose their health-care benefits and that further strained family budgets.

“All the costs are increasing while the wages are staying about the same,” Miller said, saying WAMY had begun resorting to waiting lists for many of its services. She also recently attended a conference where she learned the poverty formula had been derived in the 1950s based on the cost to feed a family of four. That cost was multiplied by three, and any family not meeting that standard was considered poor.

The Hunger & Health Coalition is seeing increased demand for both its food assistance and free-pharmacy programs. Assistant director Crystal Winebarger said, “We’re taking new clients for the pharmacy and the food pantry daily. We’re being utilized more than ever.”

Winebarger said there had been a post-holiday lull in food donations, and the budget for prescription medicines was also not growing to meet the need.

“We do the best we can with what we have,” she said.

Winebarger also attributed the escalating poverty rate to unemployment and high fuel prices. “Many of our clients work three part-time jobs,” she said.

In the meantime, the food pantry is short of dried pasta, dried beans, canned goods and other staples. “Right now, we don’t even have a can of soup,” Winebarger said.

Though the poverty rate increases hit all ages, those under 18 and those with families experienced a less-dramatic rise in poverty. Among families with children aged 5 to 17, poverty increased from 12.4 percent in 2000 to 15.4 percent in 2005. The median household income for Watauga County was $32,688 in 2005, a drop of $1,140 from five years earlier.

The statewide poverty rate for all ages was 14.9 percent and the North Carolina median income was $40,781.