Extreme Poverty / Is This Michgan or the Third (turd) World

Thousands more in West Michigan hit 'extreme poverty' as state woes continue
by Ted Roelofs The Grand Rapids Press

Michigan was the only state where poverty rose and incomes fell last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
More people in West Michigan are bottoming out.
The U.S. Census Bureau shows the number of Grand Rapids residents in extreme poverty -- at $10,325 or less for a family of four and half the federal poverty line -- climbed from 13,957 in 2000 to 22,497 in 2007, a 65 percent increase. That number represents 12.3 percent of the city's population.

In Kent County, 78,198 people were in poverty in 2007, or 13.2 percent, compared to 49,832 in 2000, or 8.9 percent. The number in extreme poverty jumped from 22,061 in 2000 to 36,597.
Chico Daniels, president and CEO of Mel Trotter Ministries, sees this bleak reality each day at the Grand Rapids shelter for homeless men and families.
Some come because of substance abuse. But others are simply out of money, out of work and have no place to stay.

"With the highest unemployment rate in the nation, I'm not surprised. Some of these are people who counted on those assembly-line jobs," Daniels said of Michigan's economy. "They staked their entire future on the auto industry. The decline of the auto industry has sent shock waves through the entire community."

Year to date, the shelter has taken in 3,889 women, up 35 percent from the same period in 2007. The number of children in the shelter is up nearly 20 percent.

"I think poverty doesn't go on vacation," Daniels said.
"Poverty tends to hit women and children hardest. My definition of poverty is a lack of options. People come to Mel Trotter because they are out of options."
In Wyoming, the poverty rate declined slightly, from 14.3 percent in 2006 to 12.2 percent in 2007. But those in extreme poverty increased from 2,594 in 2006 to 4,339 in 2007, a 67 percent rise.

While the overall poverty rate in Ottawa County was about half that of Kent County, at 6.8 percent, those in poverty climbed more than 5,000 from 2006 to 2007, to 16,909.
The number in extreme poverty reached 7,176, nearly double the number in 2006.
Michigan's rate of extreme poverty jumped from 6 percent in 2006 to 6.5 percent last year. Eight years ago, the rate was 4.8 percent. The number of people in poverty increased by 45,000 during 2006-07.

The child poverty rate increased from 17.8 percent to 19 percent between 2006-07, while the national rate stood at 17.6 percent.
Amy Rynell, director of the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance Mid-American Institute on Poverty, said Michigan continues to lead even the hard-hit Midwest in bad news. Its poverty rate stood at 14 percent in 2007, up from 13.5 percent the year before -- and a full percentage point above the national rate, which was virtually unchanged during the same period.

"Michigan, relative to the nation, appears to be doing the worst. The only state in the nation where poverty actually increased was Michigan."
Rynell said the rising number of those in extreme poverty is sobering.

"These are people who are spreading out their food so they are only eating once a day. They are people who are living in houses that are unsuitable for living.
"These are really dire conditions where people are making decisions that are really untenable."
Beyond the layoffs and plant closings that have rocked the Midwest in recent years, Rynell said, states such as Michigan are paying the price for social service cutbacks.

Four Michigan cities -- Kalamazoo, Flint, Pontiac and Detroit -- were among the 20 poorest in the nation. "We have seen over the last decade a whittling away of our safety net. The programs that were in place to help people in economic downturns have been whittling away."

The news is little better for middle-class households.
Median incomes in West Michigan remain sharply down from 2000, declining in Kent County from $57,217 in 2000 to $49,354 in 2007. In Ottawa County, income dropped from $65,140 in 2000 to $53,881 in 2007.
The 2007 median income in Michigan was $47,950, down 1.2 percent or $596 from the 2006 median of $48,546. The state's nationwide ranking slid from 24th to 27th.

Locally, there was one ray of hope in the Census report released Tuesday. Median income in Grand Rapids climbed to $38,272 in 2007, from $35,676 in 2006.

In another report released Tuesday, the Census Bureau said 11 percent of Michigan residents had no health insurance coverage in 2007 -- up from 10.4 percent in 2006 and 9.1 percent at the beginning of the decade.