Even though the national economy seems to be humming along, and Minne-sota's strengthened economy will finally yield a state budget surplus, a disturbing trend shows that more and more Ameri-cans are dropping into deeper poverty.
The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty reached a 32-year high, according to a McClatchy News Service analysis of 2005 Census figures, the latest available. It found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty, figured at half the federal poverty line, or $9,903 for a family of four with two children. That the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005, much faster than the overall poverty rate, adds credence to the idea of two Americas -- one for the rich, one for the poor, with a deep divide in the middle.
Minnesota also has disturbing trends, the McClatchy analysis found. The state's severe-poverty population increased 62 percent over the same period, the fastest increase in the nation.
The figures show that much work yet needs to be done to turn poverty figures around, and in a number of different areas. Jobs are not enough, but living wage jobs are needed to pull those in poverty up. Health care is also a costly item, but those in deep poverty are unlikely to have insurance and directly become the taxpayers' problem when it becomes necessary to visit the emergency room under public assistance.
For those in deep poverty, simply maintain-ing a home becomes a challenge for survi-val. The number of homeless in northwest-ern Minnesota has been on the rise, and especially among the number of children.
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A Forum Communications State Capitol Bureau report in Saturday's Pioneer detailed a shortage of affordable housing in rural Minnesota, with 10,600 fewer affordable housing units outside the Twin Cities than will be needed by 2010, over and above thousands of privately developed and non-profit-backed projects. A problem is that the average price of homes exceeds what a worker on a rural Minnesota wage can pay in mortgage.
A number of initiatives are before the Leg-islature this year, including one by Gov. Tim Pawlenty to provide $35 million in new funding for affordable housing pro--jects and programs to curb homelessness.
It's also an issue that the Bemidji com-munity has identified, as affordable hous-ing was one of the half-dozen issues that Bemidjians lobbied last week during Bem-idji Day at the Capitol. In Beltrami County, there is a projected need of 700 new hous-ing units by 2010. Important to Bemidji is a proposal to double from $7.5 million to $15 million funding for the Family Home-less Prevention and Assistance Program, which is one of the nation's most effective approaches to confronting and ending homelessness. A number of Bemidji agencies benefit from FHPAP grants.
We've obviously allowed slack in the safe-ty net, now it's time to sew it back up. We cannot ride a rolling economy while it rolls over society's least fortunate, who only want a decent job and provide for their family.
