Ideas on easing poverty reflect a sense of its burden on Phila.

Oct. 17, 2007
Douglas Pike
For The Inquirer

Poverty had to be an issue in Philadelphia's election year: One-fourth of the city's residents live in poverty. That's the worst rate among the nation's 10 biggest cities. 

The citizens worried about this statistic aren't just the 350,000 or so Philadelphians stuck below the official poverty line ($20,444 for a family of four). At Great Expectations forums this year, working people, students and retirees showed that they grasp the links between poverty and front-page issues such as crime, schools and illegal drugs.

Voters' comments on poverty seemed to blend sympathy for the people trapped in it with a fear of violent crime - and a sense of what a relentless burden, fiscal, practical and spiritual, poverty has become for their city.

Many of their ideas fit under themes featured in recent antipoverty agendas from New York to San Jose. Let's group them under four headings:

Get what you deserve

About 325,000 Philadelphians get food stamps; if national averages hold true here, at least 100,000 more are eligible but haven't applied. 

More than 493,000 city residents get free health insurance through Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but tens of thousands more are eligible.

More than 160,000 Philadelphians successfully filed last year for the valuable federal tax credit for low-income workers. But roughly 20,000 more could probably get the credit.

Government and grassroots allies are trying to repair this problem. Pennsylvania has an excellent, underpublicized place to do one-stop shopping for benefits: www.compass.state.pa.us. The number of Philadelphia tax filers getting the working-poor tax credit has increased by more than 9,000 since 2002 - and much of the credit goes to the Campaign for Working Families (http://go.philly.com/cwf).

End "poverty premium"

For example, do you know that low-income Pennsylvanians can gradually invest up to $2,000 in a Family Savings Account - with the state matching it dollar for dollar? Check it out at http:// go.philly.com/fsa.  

Education and jobs

Well-paid jobs for dropouts just aren't there anymore. Philadelphians know it. But this city has found its transition to a post-industrial economy especially difficult: The one-time "Workshop to the World" lags badly in education for 21st-century jobs.

More city residents have started college without getting a degree than the number who have earned a college diploma.

So from citizens to educators to think-tankers, the mantra is to get Philadelphians through high school, and then into college or decent job training. The challenge includes motivating folks who dropped out short of their potential to drop back in. With about 8,000 young Philadelphians dropping of grades 6 through 12 every year, this is a huge problem the city must solve.

Great Expectations participants urged more internships, summer jobs, and mentoring, which organizations such as the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the Philadelphia Youth Network have mobilized to provide. So far, their earnest efforts still fall short of the need.

One parent said that schools should do more to discourage teenage girls from getting pregnant and having babies that hurt their chances for success. At present, education about human sexuality is part of the School District's health curriculum. It stresses sexual abstinence as the best choice but also tells sexually active teens how to reduce their risks. Condoms are provided at only a handful of Philadelphia schools - a service that's subject to parental veto.

There is some good news: Between 1995 and 2005, the birth rate to girls younger than 18 fell by one-third in Philadelphia - and nationwide. Factors in this decline probably include fear of sexually transmitted diseases and tougher rules for welfare. Still, the U.S. teenage birth rate remains the highest in the industrialized world.

Many citizens cite the barriers ex-prisoners face in finding and holding jobs. In February, the Mayor's Office for the Reentry of Ex-offenders (http://www.phila.gov/reentry/) opened a one-stop service center at 1741 S. 54th St. that has helped about 400 former prisoners find jobs. A second center has just opened at 1954 E. Allegheny Ave.

City Council is considering a policy backed by Democratic candidate Michael Nutter: a tax credit to businesses that hire and retain former prisoners.

Nurturing neighborhoods

At neighborhood meetings and a special meeting on urban poverty, citizens wanted poor neighborhoods to be uplifted physically - with affordable housing, well maintained schools, brightly lit streets, green spaces, and so on. Mayor Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative - which has sparked construction of more than 12,000 new residences - is a prime example of bricks-and-mortar transformation.

Citizens also stressed the value of developing more social connection and civic capacity inside struggling neighborhoods. Their suggestions included "exchange program" visits between neighborhoods, and more sharing of tips and expertise from well-established neighborhood associations.

In cities such as Indianapolis and Denver, this strategy is being put to the test. Baltimore has a neighborhood revitalization plan that requires a community to demonstrate unity even to be included.

Philadelphia's neighborhood-based antipoverty successes include state Rep. Dwight Evans' work with the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corp. in West Oak Lane.

In the Democratic primary in May, the one mayoral candidate who based his campaign on a big-budget, antipoverty agenda - Rep. Chaka Fattah - failed to win, place or show.

But that does not mean that poverty is off the radar for Nutter, the likely next mayor. He says he's focused on poverty, but thinks tax cuts to attract jobs and investment in schools may prove to be a better fix for poverty than a bunch of new programs that have the word in their names.

What's clear is that many Philadelphians, while skeptical of grand schemes, want their city to work harder and smarter to help poor adults and their kids to better lives. A "Next Great City" can't be content to let 350,000 of its citizens live in chaotic circumstances and constant need.