Articles
Back to Articles

One-third of Oregon Kids Growing Up in Poverty’s Grip
Many children have poor diets, no health care and face abuse, says a group in a report that looks at each county in the state

By Bill Graves for The Oregonian

They slug it out from paycheck to paycheck with no prospects for vacations, no cushion for surprises such as a car breakdown, no margin to get ahead.

They’re Oregon’s “working poor.” About 600,000 people who live just above the poverty line, out of reach of assistance but still strapped for basic services. They crowd food banks and juggle daycare providers, and many of their children have no health insurance.

Their children – who number almost 200,000 - are nearly as vulnerable to the corrosive forces of poverty as those classified as poor, says a report released today.

Together, children living in poverty or near poverty total about 321,000 – on in three young Oregonians. They face higher risks of encountering substandard child care, poor diets, no health care and abuse and neglect, says Marie Hoeven, executive director for the non-partisan Children First for Oregon, which produced the 2003 county-by-county report on the status of children.

“Those families are in flux and in transition and in constant stress with limited options,” says Hoeven. “That trickles into a child’s development.”

More than 80,000 Oregon children have no health insurance, and two-thirds of low-income families cannot find affordable childcare or housing, the report says. Children First defines low income, or working poor, as those living below the federal poverty line: $36,800 for a family of four.

One child without health insurance is the 19-month old daughter of Abbie Cowlishaw, 33, of Portland, who earns $11.50 an hour handling medical records at a doctor’s office. She owes $2,000 for taking her daughter to a hospital emergency room.

“You can survive this way,” says Cowlishaw, who has a bachelor’s degree in English. “I wouldn’t say you necessarily thrive.”

Michelle Emery, 33, of Portland, also a single mother, pays $100 a month for health insurance for her 2-year-old daughter, Hailey. But she cannot afford insurance for herself. Though she works full time in sales, bringing home about $1,700 a month. Her costs include $650 in rent for a one bedroom apartment, $200 for a loan payment on schooling that earned her an associate’s degree in veterinary medicine, $50 for utilities and $350 for child care.

That leaves about $350 a month for food and other expenses. She has not seen a movie in a theater in four years. She has no car and left town only once in the past year to visit the coast with her father. She wants to go back to college.

“It is just a huge struggle,” she says. “If you want to do anything with your life, you have no support to do that. I’m trying to make something of my life.”

On the coast, Robert More describes a grim resignation settling in Coos County, which he calls “mini-Appalachia,” where half the children live in or near poverty.

“It’s getting worse, but in a lot of ways we’ve been here for a long time, so we’re used to working this side of the trenches,” says More, a director of Southwestern Oregon Community Action, a private, nonprofit agency.

As families climb out of poverty, they lose their eligibility for health and child care assistance, and that sometimes leaves them with less money than they had when they were poor, social agencies say.

“You just live from day to day,” says Mollie Traylor, 42, of Southeast Portland, who works full time, as does her partner, together bringing home $2,650 a month, barely enough to cover the house payment, child care for two kids and other basics.

In Morrow County, parents face slim pickings as childcare providers come and go. In Coos County, 40 percent of the children received an emergency food box in the past year. Oregon in recent years has repeatedly ranked at or near the top of the nation for the proportion of residents, 5 percent to 6 percent, who say they sometimes skip meals and go hungry.

Results of an Oregon State University study released last month show that the percentage of hungry people changes only slightly between Oregonians living in poverty and those who climb above it with low-paying jobs, says Mark Edwards, a sociology professor who helped conduct the study. But elsewhere in the nation, hunger drops significantly as people surpass poverty, he says.

“We need to better understand what is going on with people just above the poverty line,” he says. “There must be something about the costs those people face that are particularly problematic. We’ll look at child care costs, rent, and rent as a fraction of their income.

Wide differences statewide
Children First’s report repeats some information it released in September when it issued a report card on the well-being of the state’s children. It gave Oregon overall a c-minus, with an F for family financial stability and a D in health.

Today’s report goes into more depth, giving breakdowns by county. The numbers, most from 2002 from a variety of state agencies, show wide differences in how children fare across the state.

The median income for families with children, for example, ranges from $30,250 in Wheeler County to $60,121 in Washington County.

The number of childcare providers varies from five per 100 children younger than 13 in Gilliam County to 23 in Hood River County. Juvenile arrest rates by county range from 12 per 1,000 children younger than age 18 in Lake County; to about 20 in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties; to at least 80 in Douglas and Gilliam counties.

Statewide, nearly one in three children lives with a single parent. Although many parents worked in 1999, one-third of children live in families in which no parent works full time all year. The number of childcare providers has dropped, while infant mortality and the number of children living near domestic violence and other threatening conditions has climbed in the past year.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski called attention to the needs of Oregon’s children last month when we outlined goals to ensure that every child grows up safe and healthy, enters school ready to learn and graduates from high school prepared for college.

Call for investment
Children First, a private non-profit, urges the state to invest in health insurance for all children and strengthen school-based health centers. It recommends the state increase its earned income tax credits for low-income families and strengthen its Employment Related Day Care Program.

In addition, the private sector should invest more in health and childcare, the group says.

One reason single moms Cowlishaw and Emery can work is because of century-old Fruit & Flower Child Care Center in Northwest Portland subsidizes their child care costs through it’s scholarship fund. The center replenishes the fund with United Way money and fund-raising efforts.

“That is the kind of strategy we’re promoting,” says Hoeven of Children First.

Michael Leachman, policy analyst for the Oregon Center for Public Policy in Silverton, says Oregon needs to invest in its working families to keep the economy healthy.

“It is appropriate for the government to step in,” he said, “and make sure that families have the opportunity to reach for the American Dream.”

Back to Articles