Working Poor Still Struggle

A L B U Q U E R Q U E, N.M., Dec. 13 , 2000 -- To the working poor looking in on abooming economy from the outside, housing and fuel prices haveexploded and health care, prescription drug and car repair costsaren’t far behind.

That’s leaving precious little for food budgets this holidayseason, almost five years into the welfare reform act’s efforts tomove people off welfare and into jobs.

“A lot of the people that eat here have jobs,” said chef JoeCailteux, cooking up ham, noodle casserole and green beans atAlbuquerque’s Salvation Army kitchen. “As a matter of fact, wehave scheduled the hours that we feed here in order to feed thepeople who do attempt to work.”

A year ago, the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that demand foremergency food assistance grew 18 percent over 1998 in 26 cities.Thursday, they plan an update on hunger and homelessness.

Difficult Decisions

A U.S. Agriculture Department study last year found 10 millionfamilies, or 9.7 percent of U.S. households, had inadequate accessto food in 1996-98. New Mexico topped the list at 15.1 percent.

“It does become a choice between do I take my child to thedoctor, pay my utility bill or go to the grocery store and buyfood?” said Cindy Cerf, spokeswoman for St. Mary’s Food Bank inPhoenix, which distributes 30 million pounds of food a year, mostlyto 900 relief agencies in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

“These aren’t people who are depending on welfare,” she said.“It’s just that they’re at the low end of the pay scale.”

Also suffering are people whose jobs don’t include healthbenefits, said Sister Paulette LoMonaco, executive director of GoodShepherd Services in New York City.

“Their salaries aren’t sufficient to provide benefits or aliving wage, so when a small problem comes up, it becomes acatastrophe,” she said.

Single mother Margaret Trujillo of Albuquerque earns $60 a weekfrom baby-sitting and gets $120 a month in food stamps. She saysrising fuel prices mean she can’t pay her bills, so she turned to afood pantry to make sure she and her 3-year-old son have enough toeat.

“My mom’s not going to say get out, you know, but I need to payher,” she said.

Heating Prices Will Stay High

Soaring demand, low inventories and expected colder weather willkeep natural gas and heating-oil prices high through the winter,government and industry economists said Tuesday. The EnergyDepartment estimated heating bills for natural gas consumers wouldbe 50 percent higher this winter than last.

Rents have skyrocketed so much in 38 metropolitan areas that theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development broadened itsrent-subsidy program this month.

Still, some people aren’t getting help that they could. Foodstamp rolls dropped 28 percent after welfare reform, according tothe General Accounting Office.

Doug O’Brien of Chicago-based America’s Second Harvest, a foodbank umbrella group, says many people leaving welfare were nevertold they remained eligible for food stamps or found it hard to getthem.

Said Agriculture Undersecretary Shirley Watkins, who supervisesthe food stamp program: “I think there was a lot ofmisinformation.”

So people turn to food banks. The Roadrunner Food Bank inAlbuquerque distributed 10 million pounds of food statewide thisyear — double the amount since last year, said director MelodyWattenbarger.

“The flaw in that is we can’t do it — we were designed to beemergency food suppliers. There’s really not enough food to dothat,” she said.

New Mexico plans a massive outreach program in the next sixmonths to alert people eligible for food stamps.

The prevailing glow of affluence also can make helping the needytrickier: “It’s a little harder to convince people there’s a wholegroup of people who have been left behind by that prosperity,”Wattenbarger said

Fred Grandy, recently retired as president of GoodwillIndustries, says welfare reform was a turning point for thatorganization. Last year, he said, Goodwill served 373,000 people — three times the number for 1995.

“It’s a work in progress,” he said. “Replacing welfare withwork is a good idea, but it is a long-term strategy, not ashort-term fix.”