CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, April 3.1985 Page 9
Task force reviews poverty
By MICHELLE WORRALL Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
More than 9,600 Douglas County residents are snared in the ever-tightening grasp of poverty.
LOCAL SOCIAL ASSISTANCE agencies in Lawrence define poverty according to family size and monthly income. For example, a one-person household earning $650 a month would be considered below the poverty level, as would a family of six earnings $1,800 a month.
The strength of this potential killer ranges from the frustrations of continual small deprivations to the fear for the survival of one's family.
As warmer months approach, the poor may agonize over high cooling bills, face food shortages, foreign health care and seek emergency assistance from state, local and national resources. These are the findings of a recent Douglas County Task Force on Health and Nutrition that illustrates the problems of poverty-striken families.
"People close their eyes to poverty," Eunice Beers, Salvation Army case worker, said yesterday. "But drive by the park and you'll see people sitting on benches wondering what to do."
Requests for aid increased 50 percent last month, said Sherri Paysinger, executive director of Ballard Community Center Inc., 708 Elm St., a non-profit agency that helps families who meet income payments pay utility bills.
Poverty is not selective, but it tends to stalk the elderly and families with a single mother as head of the household. The poverty rate for these families is 3.7 times higher than for the average family, according to the task force report.
The increase, she said, is a result of families trying to pay bills that accumulated during the winter.
David Harkness, clinical director of the Bert Nash Mental Health Center in Lawrence, said college towns were ideal breeding grounds for poverty because of the large number of jobs willing to work for minimum wage.
"College towns are the most competitive areas for employment," he said. "They're more competitive than New York City. And when
LOCAL AGENCY DIRECTORS agree that poverty is a problem in Lawrence. Douglas County reported a 16.5 percent poverty level, according to the 1980 Census. Nearby Johnson County reported only 3.5 percent poverty.
students compete with people who are unskilled or semiskilled, guess who loses."
ANOTHER REASON FOR LAWRENCE's high level of poverty, Harkness said, is because students reap benefits from the county, such as road or social services, disproportionately to the amount of state and local income taxes they pump back into the community.
Employers are more willing to hire students, he said, because the student turnover rate is high. Many students only work part-time or during the school year — not long in the demand pay increases or job benefits.
Barbara Gaines, income maintenance supervisor for Lawrence Social and Rehabilitation Services, said. "We have a real need here. In Lawrence, poverty is overshadowed by the students and the emphasis on the institution. They are a hidden population."
However, Anthony Redwood, executive director for the KU Institute of Economic and Business Research, said Douglas County's poverty level was inflated because children are behind the poverty level that are below the poverty level but are enough to finance their education, housing and food.
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