INTRERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT POVERTY IN OUR AREA A MUST READ

Below is an article from December 16, 2007 edition of the Fond du lac Reporter :

I am sure the situation is not any better in the city.






Paradox exists between poverty, plenty

By Sharon Roznik
The reporter sroznik@fdlreporter.com
The growing number of working poor living in Fond du Lac and surrounding rural areas casts a shadow of hidden poverty on the surface of what is perceived as a middle-class community.


As Fond du Lac School Superintendent Greg Maass points out, one-third of the 7,600 students attending Fond du Lac Public Schools are eligible for free and reduced lunch — 2,357 kids to be exact. Numbers are as high as 78 percent at Riverside Elementary School, located just south of the city's downtown area.


"Unless those who live in the community make an effort to drive around the downtown area or make an effort to really see it, they wouldn't recognize or understand the physical state of some neighborhoods where these children and families are living," he said.


Neighborhoods around Chegwin and Parkside elementary schools and Sabish Middle School are occupied, in part, Maass pointed out, by good families struggling to make ends meet.


"People will always have the self-reliance and hitching-yourselves-up-by-the-bootstrap mentality, Maass said. "There's no doubt there's a middle-class perspective here because we live in houses and pay heat, and we say to ourselves things can't be as bad as people say they are. And because we say that and don't understand, we think someone else will fix it."


Numbers keep rising

A total of 7,693 individuals in Fond du Lac County are signed up to receive some kind of medical assistance, including Badger Care. Another 1,916 families are part of the Food Share program, said Kim Mooney, director of Fond du Lac County Social Services.


"The number of people that need help from us continues to grow," Mooney said. "Right now, I am getting massive e-mails from my staff looking for clothes for kids, furniture and basic financial aid for struggling families."


The traffic in and out of local food pantries this time of year is phenomenal, said Roxanne Burkhardt, case worker at the local Salvation Army. With the high cost of home heating fuels and the money it takes to fill a car with gas — at least enough to get to work — those laboring in low-paying jobs are faced with bills beyond their budget.


This holiday season, the Salvation Army has adopted out 157 families for Christmas assistance and 1,000 children are listed on its angel tree. Burkhardt said the organization has 404 families on financial assistance and 3,500 families receiving food during the year.


"There are a lot of people coming here from Chicago and Milwaukee. They are coming up north because they are not finding any jobs and the homeless shelters there are full," she said.


"Each month, we see an additional 62 families coming in to get food. Sometimes they use it once or twice and don't come back. Others keep coming back. More and more people are living paycheck to paycheck," Burkhardt said.


Self-sufficiency

The paradox of poverty amidst plenty was first addressed in the 1960s, during the (Lyndon) Johnson administration, said Mike Bonertz, executive director of the Advocap agency headquartered in Fond du Lac. The non-profit community-action organization was formed to not only create opportunities for people living in poverty but increase to self-sufficiency.


Over the past six years, Bonertz said he has seen a radical increase in the disparity between what he calls the "poor and the not poor" in Fond du Lac County.


"Things have changed over the years, and poverty is on the rise. Manufacturing jobs have moved out of the area. There are a lot of homeless young people — people who are couch-surfers and move from friend to friend. Much of the rural poverty is located in Green Lake County, but there are pockets in Fairwater and Markesan," he said.


Advocap, which serves Green Lake, Winnebago and Fond du Lac counties, is one of 16 agencies in Wisconsin — and a 1,000 nationwide — that empower financial strugglers with programs like Head Start for pre-school kids and Fresh Start, for teens who need a high school equivalency diploma. Bonertz said the agency also partners with Fond du Lac's Solutions Center, which operates a temporary shelter for the homeless.


"The vast majority of the low-income people are working, so when you talk about the poverty rate itself, the self-sufficiency rate is much higher when you consider what people have to deal with," he said. "It takes much more (in resources) to break even, much more than people think."


Understanding the causes

From a school perspective, educators are also tasked with trying to understand the causes of poverty, Maass said.


"Many times, people like to place blame, but they really have no clue," Maass said. "These families have the same hopes and aspirations that all families have, but because of an economic circumstance or medical issue or accident, are experiencing financial hardship."


He names a third cause as the greatest: the generational poverty cycle.


"Kelly Noble (principal at Sabish Middle School) was telling me about how he sees adults with their own children, whom he had as students. They are still living in poverty, often in situations with multiple families living under the same roof," Maass said.


Kids from low-income backgrounds are encouraged to end the cycle by taking responsibility for themselves and be literate to be successful. School programs focus in on basic needs.


"We make an effort to offer breakfast programs and after-school programs for kids and families, even some during the school day," Maass said. "We work with the transit system on cooperative funding mechanisms. We have read Ruby Payne's book 'Bridges Out of Poverty' and try to recognize kids' behaviors, the ones that tell us someone is suffering from poverty."


Bonertz agrees with the strength of empowerment. The role of the community, he maintains, needs to be one of giving people the means to rise up out of desperate situations.


"I think the community is fairly sensitive," Bonertz said. "There are many social services organizations run by people who care. We have a county executive (Allen Buechel) here in Fond du Lac who pays attention to the poverty going on here."


Mooney said people should put themselves in other people's shoes.


"Imagine having your name pulled from a tag placed on a Christmas tree to rely on getting something for Christmas," she said. "These people can miss one bill and get in over their heads. It up to all of us to try to do everything we can."