Poverty is a hot topic of late in southeast Kansas — Thrive Allen County, Project 17 and Kansas Leadership Center’s Leadership and Faith Initiatives are all working to curb Allen County’s 56 percent poverty rate in different ways. When solving any problem, being well versed in the subject can only increase the odds of success. Poverty is no different.
Communities struggling with poverty not only need to review statistics and socioeconomic data, but also learn about the culture, said Georgia Masterson of Social and Rehabilitative Service’s east region.
Masterson and fellow SRS agent Anita Cooper shed some light on the thought processes and perceptions the middle class and wealthy have about the poor during two Bridges Out of Poverty workshop sessions.
The SRS agents’ presentation, one at Allen Community College in the morning and another in Community National Bank’s basement in the afternoon, were based on Ruby Payne’s 2006 book of the same name and prompted by worsening economic conditions in the area.
In 2010, three school districts in southeast Kansas had more than half of their students on free- and reduced-price lunches.
“Now, every single community in southeast Kansas has more than half of their kids on free and reduced lunches,” Masterson said. “That’s an indicator the economy is reaching the point of being unsustainable.”
With poverty rates on the rise, the burden on the government to provide assistance increases as well. But oftentimes the amount of welfare aid available isn’t enough to move an individual out of poverty, she said. A qualifying single mother of two can receive about $11,000 a year in cash assistance and food benefits from federal and state programs.
Economic climates in poverty-stricken areas typically aren’t rewarding enough to put a dent in the amount folks need, Masterson said.
Housing costs can eat up a majority of income and after other expenses are taken care of, there might not be any more to go around, she said.
“Seventy percent of poor renters spend more than 50 percent of their income on shelter,” Masterson said, citing a 2009 National Low Income Housing Coalition study.
When living from check to check and no stable source of income, life becomes solely about survival, she said.
In comparison, Masterson said, life for the middle class is about working, achievement and material security. In survival mode, what’s valued are relationships and entertainment.
“They don’t have time to be achievement-focused, they’re too busy trying to survive,” she said.
People in poverty also tend to live for the moment, Cooper said, which can discourage the long-term planning typically needed to move out of poverty.
“When your life is continually in crisis, when you are forced to deal with the tyranny of the moment, you don’t learn to plan and have no ‘future story,’” she said.
