An article in the Asheille Citizen-Times gives some statistics:
More than 35,000 Buncombe County residents depend on food assistance while more than 40,000 are on Medicaid, record numbers in both services.
The number of residents living in poverty was more than 16 percent in 2009, an increase from 11 percent in 2000. Nearly one in four residents were considered low-income in 2009.
The growth in the number of struggling families also is evident in Buncombe County Schools, where 52 percent of students receive free and reduced-price lunch, up from 38 percent in 2004.
So far this school year, the school system has identified 327 homeless students, a number that has steadily increased from 103 students in 2006.
To address this, the nonprofit Children First/Communities in Schools will hold a summit.
We can all agree poverty is a bad thing. Everybody who runs for office wants to eradicate it. The problems are in the approach. As the article points out:
One child in five in Buncombe County lives in poverty, a number that hasn’t changed much over the past decade even with government, nonprofits and other agencies working on the problem. . . .
“There’s already a sense of urgency and it’s only gotten more so over the past couple of years.”
Is another government program going to solve anything? Is a summit going to provide new insights? Shall we conclude we need more awareness and outreach and a bureaucracy to make Good Samaritans keep stats instead of sharing that ever un-PC notion of love?
