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Monday, June 05, 2000
By Steve Levin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Susan is 29, white, never married, with a high school degree and two children in child care. She used to receive cash assistance but has been working for the past year. Her gross income is $13,579.
Although Susan is a composite profile based on statistics from the state Department of Public Welfare, her situation is comparable to the plight of tens of thousands of women in Pennsylvania and throughout the country who are heads of households. They live just above poverty, have trouble securing adequate food for their families and worry about paying their child care and receiving child support.
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According to a recent report card of the United State's subsequent efforts, "Women and Poverty" received an "F," the only failing grade among the 12 categories. US Women Connect, a network of national and grassroots women's and girls' organizations, filed the report card. The group is meeting in New York City today through Friday.
The "F" signifies "total inaction or negative impact," said Alexandra Spieldoch, who as a board member of Center of Concern, a nonprofit social justice organization, helped craft the synopsis of the women and poverty category.
"The economic issues for women are so huge," Spieldoch said. "Thirty-four million people still live in poverty [in the U.S.]. This is simply unacceptable."
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that one of the highest poverty rates -- 30 percent -- occurs among female-headed households where no husband is present. Among blacks and Hispanics, the figure is 10 percent higher.
National poverty rates are based on income levels set by the federal government. If a family's income falls below those so-called poverty thresholds, then the family is considered poor.
Last year's poverty threshold for a family of three was $13,290; in 1995 it was $12,278. For a family of four last year it was $17,028; in 1995 it was $15,509.
Yet a 1997 study by the University Center for Social and Urban Research at the University of Pittsburgh found that basic living wages -- which include costs for transportation, child care and housing -- for a single parent with one or two children should be between $25,000 and $31,250 before taxes.
The study concluded that in 1996, a single parent working full-time with two children under the age of 6 needed to spend $25,132 each year, or $2,094 a month, to meet the family's basic needs.
"The poverty rate among women heads of households is always very high," said Pamela Loprest, a labor economist with the nonpartisan Urban Institute. "They are the poorest families."
In Pennsylvania, census statistics show that between 1996 and 1998 an average of 11.3 percent of the population -- 1.35 million people -- lived in poverty. The state does not calculate separate figures on poverty rates for female heads of households.
Poverty affects all aspects of a household, including the ability to find housing.
Craig Stevens, regional coordinator for the Pennsylvania Low Income Housing Coalition, said that 10,000 households in Pittsburgh are paying at least 50 percent of their income for housing, or living in substandard housing.
The fair market cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment in Pittsburgh is $558 per month; in Philadelphia, the cost is $738.
Under federal standards, families should not spend more than 30 percent of their income for housing. In Pennsylvania, Stevens said, that means that 47 percent of people seeking two-bedroom apartments are unable to afford them.
For people leaving the welfare rolls, housing is even harder to obtain. The state average hourly income for people leaving welfare is between $6.50 and $7.50 per hour.
"They would have to make $9 an hour in order to afford a fair market rent apartment in this area," said Stevens. "Every day I get a stream of people calling who can't afford the market rents and they're looking to get into public housing or Section 8 housing.
"There is clearly a shortage of housing here. It's a bad situation for women in poverty, especially minority women."
US Women Connect also cited the difficulty of poor women to get adequate food, education and child care. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported that at least 10.5 million households -- 36 million people, including 14 million children -- do not have access to enough food to meet basic needs.
In Pennsylvania in 1998, 288,000 people experienced hunger and more than 600,000 other people endured "food insecurity," which is defined as irregular or reduced food intake and the use of emergency food sources.
"There's still a lot of work to be done when you're looking at that many people experiencing hunger," said Sue Mitchem, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center.
"Simply stated, many Pennsylvanians just do not have the wages to meet their basic needs and put food on the table."
The federal food stamp program could help, but nationwide participation has dropped from 25 million people in 1996 to fewer than 18 million in 1999. In Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, the number of food stamp recipients has dropped during that same time by nearly 56,000 people, from 219,241 to 163,281.
According to a recent General Accounting Office report, the healthy economy and welfare reform are the two main reasons for the decline in participation.
Welfare reform plays a central role in American women's economic future. A federal study showed that although between 63 percent and 87 percent of adults have worked since leaving welfare, their average annual earnings -- from about $9,500 to about $15,140 -- often are not enough to cover all expenses.
They are overwhelmingly concentrated in low-wage, low-skill positions, with women in 57 percent of those jobs nationwide.
Studies have shown that people with more education and training have higher earnings.
But Pennsylvania currently does not allow educational programs to count toward the 20 hours per week that welfare recipients are required to work after they've received cash benefits for 24 months.
House Bill 1266, which would count some class and study time toward the work requirement, was passed unanimously by the state House nearly a year ago. It remains stalled in a Senate committee.
Pennsylvania has accumulated more than $250 million in unspent federal welfare funds.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Welfare said the state plans to use about $184 million of the unspent money on programs for the working poor, including child care, between June 30 and the first quarter of fiscal year 2002-2003.
Such anxieties were identified at the 1995 Beijing Conference under the heading of "Women and Poverty," one of 12 critical areas of concern. The 189 participating countries signed a "Platform for Action" at the conference to commit to improving women's overall condition. 
Women: A Work in Progress