Facts and Figures Fron the Northwestern's Poverty Coverage:

The Northwestern has done a great job in the first of 2-part coverage of poverty in Winnebago County.

For many, it's a struggle to survive

But there are thousands of other families, people you see at church, at school, at work or living next door who are in similar financial straits. And 2006 won't help matters. Pick the poison:

- Double-digit home heating cost increase on top of record high gasoline prices.
- A shaky job market and the erosion of the traditional manufacturing economy. Companies are just as likely to hire new workers as they are to lay off hundreds.
- A war splintering families by taking citizen-soldiers who generate vital incomes.
- Cutbacks in federal, state and local government programs and a philosophical shift in Washington and Madison from large-scale government handouts to greater reliance on private and faith-based programs.

...

Walking the (poverty) line

For a family of four, the federal poverty line for 2005 is an annual income of $19,350. But the living wage line, or the gross annual income a household must reach to support a family of four, is in the neighborhood of $42,000 in Winnebago County, according to a "Living Wage Estimator," part of Penn State University's "Poverty in America" project.

While the number of state residents living in poverty is less than the national average, Wisconsin led all states in the percentage of residents falling into poverty in 2004, the last year for which the U.S. Census Bureau has released poverty estimates.

That year, more than 571,000 Wisconsin residents, 10.8 percent of the population, were estimated to be living in poverty – a nation-leading 1.9 percentage point increase from the previous year.

"Unfortunately, what we've been seeing in the data we've been compiling to tell us how families are doing is an increase in the number of participants in the food stamp program, an increase in the number of participants in the Medical Assistance program and an increase in the number of participants who are
low-income working families who get child-care tuition assistance," said Charity
Eleson, executive director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.

"All those indicators are pointing us in the wrong direction in terms of family
independence and security."

As of 2003, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there were more than 11,000 people living at or below the poverty line in Winnebago County. That
number, too, seems certain to grow given the economic, job, housing and energy
price squeeze.

Just a few years back, that wasn't the case. During the economic boom of the late 1990s, poverty was declining in Winnebago County.

In 1997 about 6.9 percent of the population, or just more than 10,000 county residents lived in poverty. Estimated poverty totals then fell for four straight years, dipping to 9,027 people, or 6 percent of county residents, in 2000.

In 2001, everything changed when the economy hit the skids from a recession and terrorist attacks. That year, more than 9,300 residents were estimated to be at or below the poverty line, an increase of 3.2 percent over 2000. From 2001 to 2003, an additional 2,100 people slipped into poverty – a two-year increase of more than 21 percent, according to the most recent Census estimates.

Children feel the effects

Economic struggles also show up in public schools, with the number of students in the Oshkosh Area School District qualifying for free or reduced lunches increasing 6 percent during the past four years. About 28.2 percent of school district children, ages 5 to 17,qualified for free and reduced lunches this year. Four years ago, 22.4 percent were eligible.

A family of four with an annual household income of $35,798 qualifies for reduced-price meals while that same sized family with an annual income of $25,155 qualifies for free meals, according to federal guidelines.

Making ends meet on $7,200 per year

From 2000 through 2004, reliance on food stamps has more-than doubled. In 2000, nearly 2,000 county families were using the program. By 2004's end, the
number had grown to 4,083. In that same period, the number of individuals
relying on food stamps has grown from 5,153 in 2000 to 10,605 by the end of
2004.

County watching, wary of federal cut plans


One vote in Congress being pushed to take place before Christmas could deliver a huge lump of coal in the stockings of Winnebago County and the children and spouses of deadbeat parents.

County Executive Mark Harris said he has lobbied state representatives and out-of-state Congressmen urging a budget reconciliation committee to nix a provision in a $50 billion package of spending cuts that could sap the county's child support offices of $1.4 million over the next four years.

A number of U.S. Senators signed a directive last week instructing the budget committee to nix the child support funding cuts. But the county is still watching votes carefully.

"We stand to lose about $1.4 million over the next four years and probably close to an additional $440,000 a year thereafter," Harris said. "And right now we collect about $10 in child support for every $1 we spend. If we dramatically scale back our efforts in collection, there are a lot of single-family households who will have difficulty collecting child support from non-custodial parents."