Poverty Increasing At Alarming Rate In Greater Hickory Area

HICKORY, N.C.,None — The word is not something many of us think about a lot, but it's a condition in which more people in Catawba County and the surrounding areas are living than 10 years ago.

And poverty is affecting children the most.

More than 20 percent of children in the region live in poverty, says the Western Piedmont Council of Governments in a recent compilation of census data. And poverty rates in a lot of areas of the Great­er Hickory Metro area have exploded over the decade.

Poverty increases

Taylor Dellinger, data analyst for West­ern Piedmont Council of Governments, recently made a presentation on 2010 census data and comparisons to the pre­vious census to Catawba County Chamber of Commerce's Future Economy Council. According to its findings, the poverty rate across the four-county region — Catawba, Burke, Caldwell and Alexander counties — shot up 77 percent between 1999 and 2009. In Catawba County, the increase was 77 percent; Burke was 72.5 percent; Caldwell was 59.3 percent; and Alexander County increased 112.4 percent.

For Catawba County, that means 22,457 people in 2009 were living below the poverty level. Across the four-county area, 57,208 below the poverty level, according to the data. The federal poverty guideline for a family of four is $22,050 a year.

The population in the four-county area grew from 341,851 to 365,497, according to information from the council.

The Sherrills Ford area has one of the lowest poverty levels in Catawba County at 6.4 percent and the area, which runs from the town of Catawba to NC 16 and Buffalo Shoals Road area, actually saw a drop in poverty. The rate there went from 8 percent in 2000 to 4.1 percent for the period between 2005-09, according to information Dellinger provided.

While rural areas of the county such as Mountain View and the Banoak areas had lower poverty levels, the city of Hickory area had some of the highest, Dellinger said. The highest poverty areas in the county include north of US 70, bounded by Fairgrove Church Road, to Highland Avenue to downtown Hickory through Ridgeview and out to Long View along 2nd Avenue NW, Dellinger said. The highest poverty areas reached more than 30 percent of the population, according to information from the council of governments.

Many of those areas with high poverty levels also saw declines in population over the decade, That area was hit particularly hard by job losses, Dellinger said. And there's a correlation between poverty and educational attainment, he said. The higher the educational levels reached the less likely a person is to live in poverty, he said. The Greater Hickory Metro area ranked last in the state in educational attainment, Dellinger said. Of those living in poverty, 24.9 percent didn't graduate from high school, while 2.8 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher, Dellinger said.

"So education definitely matters," Dellinger said.

As for children under 18 years old, the poverty level in the metro area increased 65.3 percent, with 17,675 children in 2009 living below the poverty level, according to the data.

Public assistance skyrockets

The increase in poverty rates is showing up in demand for services from the county, local nonprofit organizations and schools.

Beth Brandes, assistant director of Catawba County Department of Social Services, said the number of people seeking food assistance increased nearly 400 percent from 2000 to 2010. The number of recipients in 2000 was 4,956 and in 2010 that number reached 24,252, she said. Those numbers can be modified a bit because of the increase in allowable income that occurred last year, she said.

For this year, 11,790 children under 18 years old are part of families receiving food assistance in the county, Brandes said.

Nearly one in six people are receiving food assistance, Brandes said.

"That's where we're seeing it first," Brandes said. She said food assistance numbers increasing was the first economic indicator of the economic downturn.

And while social services has always been aggressive going after child support owed, they can't get child support out of someone who doesn't have a job, she said.

"There's a ripple effect that doesn't always show up in unemployment numbers," Brandes said.

School systems also continue to see more and more students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program.

Brandes said 47 percent of students in Catawba County Schools in the 2009-10 school year were on free and reduced lunch. Newton-Conover City Schools and Hickory Public Schools each saw 60 percent of students receiving free or reduced lunch that year, she said.

Other services also are feelingtheburden.Brandes said those seeking Medicaid and North Carolina Health Choice — health insurance for children under 18 whose family makes too much for Medicaid but whose parent(s) don't have insurance through their job — also have increased. She said 10,285 children in the county receive Medicaid.

Roger Baker, executive director of Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry, said the people his organization serves continues to increase, as it does for Eastern Catawba Cooperative Christian Ministry. And those seeking help are in such financial straits that they have to make choices between housing, food and health care.

And the faces of those seeking help today are a lot different than those 10 years ago, said the Rev. Robert Silber, executive director of Eastern Catawba Cooperative Christian Ministry. Even if someone is employed, or underemployed, a medical calamity can force that person to seek assistance, Silber said.

And families are making adjustments.

Brandes said those in social services also are hearing that more extended family members are living in the same house.

Reaching out for help

Larry Hedrick is one of those who is used to working and paying his way. But this week, he was seeking help from Eastern Catawba Cooperative Christian Ministry.

"We're pretty independent but I'm bound and determined to go back to work," Hedrick told Silber on Wednesday.

Hedrick works for a tree trimming business and still has insurance. But he has severe back problems and has been on leave from his job while doctors try to determine if surgery will help. His employer is holding his job for three months. His wife, Tamara, after losing a full-time job, is working a part-time retail job.

Because he still has his job, Hedrick still has insurance but can't pay the deductible. On Wednesday, he said he has six prescriptions at the pharmacy waiting on him to pick up but he can't afford to.

Tamara's car was recently repossessed. They cut out cable TV and the couple has had to pawn and sell items to make ends meet. But it seems trouble keeps finding them. He had to spend rent money to fix the one car the couple has so Tamara can get back and forth to work.

Help with rent was one of the things the couple was seeking this week through the ministry.

"We're just trying to make it month to month," Hedrick said.

Asking for help is something he's not used to.

Even though doctors may determine surgery will do no good on his back, Hedrick is determined to get back to work. It may not be trimming trees but he wants to work.

Making ends meet

Finding ways to get by is almost a birth right for many folks in western North Carolina, said Cameron Lippard, assistant professor of sociology at Appalachian State University.

"Economic struggle has always been an issue in this area," said Lippard, who grew up in the western part of the state. He said the poor and working class have always fought to make ends meet but the current economic recession is affecting the middle class and higher-income bracket folks in the area as well, so people are paying attention.

While people from all income levels have the same basic needs such as food and shelter, the level of what you have depends on what you can afford, Lippard said. For instance, everyone needs food but if you want healthy food it will cost you more, he said. The US Department of Agriculture suggested a family of four should spend an average of around $139 a week for groceries, Lippard said. This is called the "thrifty food plan" under the "Official USDA Food Plans: Cost of Food at Home, 2011," he said.

Stretching money for necessities, Lippard said, is almost a subculture now.

JudgingfromTVprograms and an increase in demand for Sunday newspapers, clipping and using coupons to save money is on the rise. Buying generic brands of food and other items also seem to be on the increase. But it's not new.

Buying generic brands of food, dented or damaged canned food and buying in bulk had its start during the Great Depression, Lippard said.

Future economy

The area has been losing jobs and large employers since 2000 when textile and furniture companies started leaving to move overseas where labor was cheaper.

Lippard said the Hickory area is going to have to bill itself differently. It's no longer a place where furniture is the cash cow.

And leaders recognize the need to change things up.

Terry Bledsoe, chairman of the Future Economy Council, told members last week that "Conditions, and the world, have changed and we need to change."

Bledsoe said this week that business, in general, is not handled today the way it used to be. Businesses in the area used to compete but it seems they've realized the need to work together.

"Our competition is not each other but the rest of the world," Bledsoe said.

And leaders in other parts of the country are competing for business that utltimately will put people back to work, Bledsoe said. The region's unemployment rate in June rose to 12.5 percent, up from 11.9 percent in May. The region's rate was 13.4 percent in June 2010. The Greater Hickory area had the second-highest jobless rate in June among the 14 metro areas of the state, according to information from the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina.

The Hickory metro area needs to be proactive, looking at what its strengths are and building on them, Bledsoe said.

Bledsoe says the economic recovery will be slow in the US.

But Dellinger said Catawba County isn't in a bubble and the close proximity to Charlotte and Asheville, and their influence, shouldn't be discounted. He said those areas are expected to recover more quickly.

Conover City Manager Donald Duncan, who attended the recent Future Economy Council meeting, said folks keep looking for a magic bullet to solve the unemployment issue, where a company comes in and hires 2,000 workers. That's likely not going to happen, he said. Small niche industries that can adapt quickly to change and are invested in the community are the businesses that will survive and even expand, Duncan believes.

That, Duncan said, is how the area built an economy 200 years ago.

WSOC