City and County Poverty Rates Below Statewide Level

By Traci Shurley and Maria Perotin, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Aug. 29–The percentage of people living in poverty in Fort Worth, Arlington and the rest of Tarrant County was below the statewide level of 16.9 percent in 2006, according to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.

But local social service providers say the demand for services is increasing, especially for healthcare. Texas leads the nation in the percentage of residents who lack health insurance, the bureau reports.

United Way of Tarrant County sees the need every day. Calls to its 211 help line, for example, have increased 68 percent during the first six months of 2007, compared to that period last year.”We see the number of calls we’re receiving increasing dramatically quarter after quarter,” said Ann Rice, United Way of Tarrant County interim president and CEO. “I think awareness is a factor, but I can’t say awareness is the total factor. That would just be too much.”

The 2006 American Community Survey released Tuesday reported that the percentage of people living below the poverty threshold, or $20,444 annually for a family of four, is 16.6 percent or 102,846 people in Fort Worth. In Arlington, the rate was 12.8 percent or 45,371 people. The rate in Tarrant County was 13 percent, or 213,599 people.

Across the country, 36.5 million Americans, or 12.3 percent — were living in poverty last year, according to the Census Bureau. That’s down from 12.6 percent in 2005. It was the first decline this decade.

The 2006 poverty statistics for Texas and its cities of more than 65,000 come from the American Community Survey. The survey is compiled using interviews from 3 million addresses a year concerning people’s experiences over the previous 12 months.

Tarrant County, Fort Worth and Arlington all had higher poverty rates in the 2005 American Community Survey than in the 2006 estimates. But the 2006 report includes for the first time people living in group quarters, such as assisted living homes, so no accurate comparisons of poverty rates can be made to previous years, census officials said.

Household incomes rise; earnings fall

Income data showed a mixed bag for Americans. The median household income increased to $48,201 in 2006 from $47,845 in 2005, the Census Bureau also reported Tuesday. It was the second year in a row an increase was recorded, according to the census bureau’s Current Population Survey, which is conducted separately from the American Community Survey. Median income means half the incomes are below the number; half are above.

The median income for Texans increased to $44,922 in 2006, from $42,139 in 2005.

Median earnings fell nationally by 1.1 percent for men and 1.2 percent for women from 2005 to 2006, the bureau reported. Census officials say the disparity indicates that more Americans are working full-time, year-round jobs.

Frances Deviney, research associate for the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin, called the findings in Tuesday’s report disappointing for the state because the poverty rate remained steady at 16.3 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to data from the Current Population Survey.

“It says that we’re not doing everything we need to do to make sure that families, hardworking families, can make a solid living wage that can help support their families,” she said.

Shonda Schaefer, executive director of Grapevine Relief And Community Exchange, said she’s seen more clients having to work more than one job or longer hours to make ends meet. Because of cost-of-living increases, even those who don’t live below the poverty level struggle, she said.

Rice said several area nonprofits are getting together Sept. 20 for a poverty summit, in part to address the “very, very fragile” situation facing residents who live just above the poverty level.

Insurance lacking

And Texas once again fared worst in the nation for health insurance coverage in 2006. More than 5.7 million Texans, 24.5 percent of the population, lacked insurance, according to the Census’ 2007 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.

Nationwide, 47 million people lacked health insurance last year, an increase from 15.3 percent in 2005 to 15.8 percent in 2006.

The increase was driven in part by continuing declines in employment-related health coverage.

Just 59.7 percent of people got health benefits through their jobs last year, down from 60.2 percent in 2005.

At least in part, Texas’ high percentage of uninsured residents reflects the state’s large population of Hispanic immigrants.

Nationally, more than a third of Hispanics had no benefits last year — far more than any other ethnic group. And 45 percent of the nation’s non-citizen immigrants were uninsured, compared to about 13 percent of native-born Americans.

Steven Newton, who is president of Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth, said not having health insurance drives many patients to put off medical care until severe illness leads them to a hospital emergency room.

“Patients that need to get preventive care and primary care don’t get it because they don’t have insurance,” Newton said. “Folks wait until they’re so desperately ill before they seek care.”

The situation becomes expensive not only for uninsured patients, but also for the hospitals that provide them medical treatment and for insured consumers whose insurance bills have been rising steadily for years, he said.

“It is a very, very big economic burden, which ultimately is passed on to consumers and insurance companies through higher prices,” Newton said. “What’s absolutely clear is that there is an emerging mandate for change. Nationally and locally, we cannot continue to operate the way we’re operating.”

Poverty

102,846

People below the poverty line in Fort Worth — 16.6% of population.

Earnings

$48,201

Median household income nationally in 2006.

Insurance

47 million

People nationwide lacking health insurance in 2006.

A closer look at some of the numbers, 6B

Poverty

102,846

People below the poverty line in Fort Worth — 16.6% of population.

Earnings

$48,201

Median household income nationally in 2006.

Insurance

47 million

People nationwide lacking health insurance in 2006.

A closer look at some of the numbers, 6B

——

tshurley@star-telegram.com Traci Shurley, 817-548-5494

—–

To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.