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Poverty down in U.S., but not in Long Beach
(Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Aug. 29--LONG BEACH -- In a year when the United States made small gains in the war on poverty, in Long Beach the numbers were virtually unchanged and may have inched up just a bit.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Census released its annual "Income, Poverty and Health Coverage" report for 2006.
In Long Beach, the Census shows the number of people in poverty rising from 88,868 to 91,299, or a half-percentage point from 19.3 percent to 19.8 percent. But with a margin of error of more than 10,000 people, the change is statistically insignificant.
Nationally, poverty fell for the first time in a decade from 12.6 percent to 12.3 percent, although the 36.5 million people in poverty was statistically unchanged.
The number of children in poverty in Long Beach climbed from 33,795 to 39,111, with a margin of error of 6.096, and in percentage from 27.6 percent to 30.1 percent, well above the national average of 17.4 percent.
In 2004, the Census ranked Long Beach No. 6 in overall poverty (28.6 percent) and No. 3 in children in poverty (45.2 percent). Those numbers improved dramatically in the 2005 Census, which purportedly was much more precise and used a larger sample size for more accurate estimates.
The Census no longer releases rankings for cities.
African-Americans bucked the trend this year, however, with the number in poverty dropping from 14,987 to 11,908.
Poverty is measured on a sliding threshold of earnings. For example, it is $10,488 for a single person under 65 and $20,444 for a family of four with two children under 18, up from $19,971 a year ago.
Median income in Long Beach was also virtually unchanged at $45,906, down from $46,477, with a plus or minus margin of $4,380.
The national median income was $48,200 and the state median income was $56,645. In Los Angeles County it was $51,315, or nearly 12 percent more than Long Beach.
The income picture for families headed by single women in Long Beach remained bleak. While the median family income in Long Beach is more than $49,569, for families with a single female householder it was $28,977.
Jack Humphrey, a former demographer for Long Beach and anti-poverty activist, was unenthused by the news.
"I don't see any reason for elation," Humphrey said. "We still have a lot of work to do, especially with our youth in poverty."
Humphrey stressed that the numbers and percentages in Long Beach are only estimates that show little real change.
The people who work with the poor on the frontlines say that while the numbers seem stable, there may be an attitudinal change.
"People are more accepting of (poverty) as a way of life," said Amelia Nieto, executive director of Centro Shalom, which provides services to the poor. "From what I've seen, people are really depressed. They just don't see a way out."
Nationally, Detroit had the highest poverty rate at 32.5 percent overall, including 44.3 percent of children. In counties with more than 250,000 people, Hidalgo County in Texas had the highest rate of people below poverty at 36.9, including 47.8 percent of children.
The Census report on health coverage was grim. Although not broken down into regional numbers, the national trend is bleak.
According to the report, the number of people without health insurance rose from 44.8 million to 47 million and in percentage from 15.3 percent to 15.8 percent. The number of uninsured children rose from 8 million to 8.7 million and in percentage from 10.9 percent to 11.7 percent.
While the number of uninsured whites and Asians remained statistically unchanged, the percentage of African-Americans without health care rose from 19 percent to 20.5 percent and the percentage of uninsured Hispanics jumped from 32.3 percent to 34.1 percent.
Ron Arias, director of the Department of Health and Human Services, hadn't seen the Census report, but said it did not surprise him and even though his department doesn't provide primary care, it has felt the effects.
"I think it's clear in the state of California we are facing a potential health crisis," Arias said.
While he says he initially had hoped for meaningful health care reform, Arias now says "we're not sure we're going to get there. We are strong proponents of some sort of reform."
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Copyright (c) 2007, Press-Telegram, Long Beach, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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