By Gregg Hoffmann
When the topic of poverty come up in Wisconsin, urban Milwaukee usually gets the most attention.
Indeed, Milwaukee County ranks second in poverty levels among the 72 counties in the state, right behind Menominee County.
But, poverty can become almost hidden among the valleys and on the ridge tops of Western Wisconsin. Rural poverty seldom is as overt to the untrained observer, but it does exist and needs to be addressed.
According to the latest statistics, Vernon County ranks as the third poorest county in Wisconsin. Monroe County is fifth and La Crosse County 11th.
Thanks to Couleecap, a private, nonprofit agency established in 1966 during the War on Poverty, and WXOW-Channel 19 in La Crosse, the poor in the area are not going un-noticed.
Couleecap releases regular assessments of poverty levels in the region. More than 21,000 people live at or below the poverty level in the region, including 6,000 children, according to a 2007 assessment.
WXOW decided to do recent segment series on poverty in the area. It concentrated on one young woman who is struggling to pull herself and her two children out of poverty. It was well done and had to raise the awareness of anybody who watched it.
Doing something about the problem has to start with that awareness, especially in a rural area like Western Wisconsin, where people and services are spread out across the countryside.
According to the 2007 assessment done by Couleecap, the top three problems faced by the poor in the region are health care, housing and transportation. Low income families listed the cost and availability of dental care and health insurance as top concerns.
In 2006, the average annual cost of family health insurance in the region was $11,500, with the employee’s portion of the health insurance premium for family coverage almost $3,000.
According to the 2007 Couleecap assessment, 40 percent of low-income households
indicated that getting a job with health benefits is a serious or very serious problem for them. In Couleecap’s four-county area, approximately 11 percent of people are uninsured at any given time.
The average charge for an emergency room visit is $675; the average charge for a
primary care visit at a clinic or physician office ranges from $100 – $150. The absence of
health insurance can destroy a family’s economic well-being and even lead to homelessness, Couleecap concluded.
Expansion of state health care insurance programs should help this situation, but some could still fall through the cracks.
According to the U.S. Census 2000, the median value of a house in Couleecap’s service area ranged from $75,000 to just under $100,000. That might seem low to many middle class homeowners, yet 58% of low-income households indicated that the inability to afford to buy a house is a serious or very serious problem for them.
Of course, the mortgage crisis of the last year has made that an even bigger problem. Rentals in the region also are hard to find at reasonable rates.
Increasing energy costs play a substantial role in the financial pressures facing low-income people, with 47% of low-income households in the region indicating that the cost of heating bills is a serious or very serious problem for them via the needs survey. Energy costs for low-income households take a much bigger portion of the household budget than for higher income families.
Xcel Energy customers in Wisconsin who heat their homes with natural gas likely will pay about 15 percent more this heating season than they did a year ago, a company spokesman said last week. Programs to help people heat their homes already have been ratcheted up, but are being strained.
In its 2007 assessment, Couleecap reported: “Transportation is a critical element for most people to get to work, go to school, reach needed services, and prosper. Many low-income families cannot afford to own a car and those that do often have older, unreliable cars and struggle to properly maintain their vehicles.
“A 2003 BTS (Bureau of Transportation Statistics) study found that the working poor
spend nearly 10% of their incomes on getting to and from work. This compares to just over 2%for individuals earning $45,000 or more annually, and 3.9% for all working Americans. For the 66% of the working poor who commuted by private vehicle, the expense of commuting is even more burdensome.
Those individuals spent 21% of their income to get to and from work According to the 2007 Couleecap Needs Assessment, 42% of low-income households indicated that the cost of car repairs and/or cost of gasoline is a serious or very serious problem for them.”
Of course, gas costs have gone up since the 2007 assessment was done. Single family cars often are the only way for people to get to work in rural areas, where there is virtually no mass transportation.
The solutions to poverty in Western Wisconsin and other rural areas are jobs in small towns, in agri-business, educational facilities for job training, better bus and rail transportation, better internet connections to allow working from the home, etc.
None of these come quickly or easily, especially in the current economic environment the whole country faces.
But, Couleecap and WXOW have provided a start by raising awareness of the problem. They deserve kudos for doing so.
Now, the Bush Administration, Congress, Gov. Doyle, the State Legislature and others who are working on economic stimulus packages must make sure they do not ignore the rural poor, like those folks in Western Wisconsin.
