Poverty continues to be concentrated in New Castle County, accounting for 56% of the total. However, the poverty rate increases as we travel south in the state, with Sussex County at 12.7%. The child poverty rate, according to this 1997 survey, is 15.4%, with the rate for children from 5 to 17 years of age being 13.8%. These two rates, like the poverty rate as a whole, increase as we go from north to south, with the child poverty rate in Sussex County exceeding that of both the other counties, as well as the state as a whole. The rate of poverty for Delaware children under five years of age is 17.1%. Similarly, median income per county declines in a southward movement, with New Castle County exceeding the state median by about $6,500 and Sussex County a little more than $8,000 below that mark.

School-Age Poverty

This same survey estimates poverty by school district throughout the state of Delaware. The same pattern applies to the findings here, with the majority of poor children attending school in northern Delaware. Northern districts account for 53% of school-age children in poverty (9,664), with the districts in the central part of state making up one-fourth of that total (4484) and the southern districts representing 22% (3,966). However, while the north has one district with a poverty rate of 20% (2,749 children in poverty), there are two districts in the central part of the state with 20% rates (with a combined total of 2,363 children in poverty). In the southern part of the state, there are three districts which exceed 20% poverty rates (one of them with a 35% rate of school-age child poverty), with a combined total of 2,783 poor children among them.

Nearly one in every six Americans (42.6 million) are without health insurance. Despite the longest economic boom in history, the number of persons without health insurance dipped just 4% in 1999.[1] With the current economic downturn, some states are already cutting back coverage with Oklahoma mailing out termination letters to Medicaid recipients and North Carolina imposing a freeze on enrollment in the CHIP program for children.[2]

Compared to other wealthy industrialized nations, the United States health care system provides coverage to the fewest and costs the most. Six of the eight OECD countries have universal coverage for all of their citizens. [3] The two countries without universal coverage are the United States and Germany which does not require its most affluent citizens to purchase health insurance. In 1997, health expenditures as a percentage of the GDP (gross domestic product) ranged from a high of 13.6% in the United States to 6.7% in the United Kingdom. The OECD median was 7.6%. When compared to the other OECD countries, infant mortality rates are the highest and life expectancy rates are the lowest in the U.S. [4]

"Market competition has not succeeded in bringing the U.S. health care costs in line with those of industrialized countries. There is no evidence of sustained quality improvement. Market based reform has not expanded health insurance coverage but has rather, directly or indirectly, increased the number of under insured and uninsured Americans. Medical research and education have suffered and medicine's social mission declined." [5]

In Delaware 11.4% of the state's population lacked health care coverage in the year 2000, compared to 13.4% for the region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York). [6] From the mid 1990s to the present the rate of uninsured in Delaware decreased from 13.6% to 11.4%. This drop in the number of Delawareans without health insurance is credited primarily to the increased coverage of children through the Healthy Children Program initiated in January 1999.

The number of uninsured children is estimated by one source as 32,000 (a 15.1% rate), with uninsured children in families at or below 200% of poverty being 23,109 (an increased rate of 27.6%). [7]

The bulk of the 96,000 uninsured Delawareans are the working poor who do not qualify for Medicaid, are not provided health insurance by their employers, and whose income is insufficient to purchase health care coverage.

The profile of the uninsured Delawarean: single, white, male over age 17, working with an income above poverty level.

Both infant mortality rates and the percentage of low birth weight babies are higher in Delaware than in the nation. Since 1983 in Delaware, the percentage of low birth weight babies has increased. As both infant mortality rates and low birth weight are correlated with poverty, it should come as no surprise that child poverty rates are increasing in Delaware where one in six children now live in poverty.[10]

The good news of low unemployment and higher real wages over recent years is tempered by the fact that workers continue to live at or near poverty and make up an increasing proportion of the officially poor. A recent study by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that almost 56% of poor families with children in Delaware have at least one worker in them and that 52% of poor families have earnings as a majority of their income (DELAWARE: Poverty and Program Trends, August 2000, www.cbpp.org) . Another CBPP study, The Poverty Despite Work Handbook, found that there are 31,000 people in working poor families and 21,000 children in those families.

The Handbook also found that 30% of Delaware families with children who live at or below the official poverty line have a full-time, year-round worker present. Within the range of 100% to 150% of poverty, 71% of the families with children

have a full-time, year-round worker. Over 90% of all Delaware families with children who fall below 200% of poverty have at least one worker, and 59% have a full-time, year-round worker.

The table below was originally developed for the Citizens' Inquiry on Welfare Reform, held in Dover, Delaware. The table has been updated to 1999 figures, including scenarios which reflect typical current placement wages and hours worked by ABC recipients. It illustrates the dilemma of welfare-to-work efforts. Even though Scenario 2 and 3 allow the family of three to rise above official "poverty," the expenses in this albeit frugal budget exceed income in all three scenarios, as well as the "pre-work" situation from which the family began.

The recent and ongoing struggle by the tenants at Greenfield Manor in Bear, Delaware, to keep their 100 subsidized units in the HUD portfolio has met with some success, mostly because of strong support from the Delaware State Wide Association of Tenants, Community Legal Aid Society, and several civic and religious groups in the area, as well as technical assistance from the National Alliance of HUD Tenants. The campaign by residents combined media, legal, and organizing efforts to encourage ownership re-commitment to the Section 8 program. And timely intervention on the part of the new director of DSHA seems to have helped to persuade ownership to temporarily comply with HUD regulations. However, in the future these units, and other units elsewhere in the state, need to be subject to a preventive process which examines options and pulls together resources to preserve units for their useful life wherever possible.

Housing in Rural Delaware

Rural Delaware has the distinction of being one of the ten worst non-metro areas for housing affordability in the U.S. In a state with public transportation problems, rural Delaware is an isolated and discouraging area in which to be poor.

In its publication, Ten Ways to Increase the Supply of Affordable Rental Housing in Rural Delaware, the Delaware Rural Housing Consortium --a group of nonprofit rural housing developers which formed in June, 1997 -- makes a compelling case for addressing neglected housing needs of Delaware's rural poor. It notes that:

• Some of the worst housing conditions in the State of Delaware are found in rural areas.
• Since they tend to be out of sight, the housing needs of this segment of the population tend to be forgotten.
• There are declining federal housing funds for rural housing.
• Employment opportunities in Kent and Sussex Counties are limited and geographically dispersed.
• 246,862 of Delaware's 717,000 people are in rural areas in all three counties.
• 123,821 of Delaware's 247,497 occupied units are situated in rural areas.
• Rural Delaware has 6,136 of the 12,053 substandard units in the state.
• Median incomes in Kent and Sussex are 28 to 33% lower than New Castle County.
• Rural Delaware suffers from a lack of housing resources
• Rural Delaware lacks better-paying job opportunities
• Foundations, corporations, and local financial institutions need to be encouraged to invest in rural initiatives.

Added to these barriers are the presence of a resort and second-home population in Sussex (which tends to keep housing prices higher than in another rural area) and the arrival of many new workers, principally to serve the poultry plants in lower Delaware, whose sudden growth has caused exorbitant rent increases in this part of the state.

Homelessness in Delaware 2000

On January 25, 2000, the University of Delaware Center for Community Development and Family Policy conducted a point-in-time study of the capacity and needs of the homeless service delivery network in Delaware, This research was designed to replicate and build upon similar studies conducted by the University in 1986 and 1995. The survey results, Homelessness in Delaware 2000 (Jeffrey Kerrigan, Principal Investigator), will be released shortly. On the night of the study, 1,040 homeless person received emergency shelter or transitional housing in Delaware. Comparing this number to the1995 estimate of 1,031 persons, the study concludes that the number of homeless in Delaware has likely remained much the same for the past five years. Of the total estimated in 2000, 549 received emergency shelter and 491 transitional housing. This study did not count person on the street. There were 457 persons in the 157 homeless families with children. There were 565 adults not in families with children.

The most recent previous study, Homelessness in Delaware Revisited by Steven Peuquet and Abigael Miller-Sowers was released in 1996. It was a follow-up study to the earlier work, Homelessness in Delaware. It found that: between 1984 and 1995 there was a 145% increase in the number of people living in emergency shelters in Delaware; the rate of homelessness in Delaware in 1995 was similar to rates found elsewhere in the U.S. and for the nation overall, African-Americans (while 17% of the state's population) were 41% of the emergency shelter population in 1986 and 60% of that population in 1995; Delaware's homeless tend to be very poor and to be "bona fide Delaware residents" and to be homeless for the first time; durations of homelessness appear to be getting longer; and substance abuse is a serious problem among the homeless.

More Working Families Joining Ranks of Homeless

A survey of homeless families in four Southern states found that nearly half the adults were employed, a phenomenon attributed to the strong economy of the last decade. The survey was conducted in 14 homeless shelters run by Volunteers of America in Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. There were 202 homeless families in those shelters; they included a total of 370 children. The survey found that 42 percent of the adults were employed, and that 28 percent of them had never received public assistance.

"This trend of working poor families becoming homeless needs the attention official, state and national policy makers," said Charles Could, Volunteers of America president. "Affordable housing, a living wage, childcare subsidies, food stamps and programs that help families rebuild their lives will not only help families living in poverty, but will help build stronger communities and a better future for all Americans.The survey, The Other America: Homeless Families in the Shadow of the New Economy, was conducted by the Institute for Children and Poverty, the research and training division of Homes for the Homeless in New York City. The data were collected in conjunction with Volunteers for America, a national nonprofit organization and one of the nation's largest providers of affordable housing.(Source: House the Homeless, Austin, Texas).

Homelessness and Civil Rights

Many cities have enacted, enforced, or are currently considering laws or policies directed against homeless people. These include public place restrictions, sweeps, anti-panhandling laws, discrimination, and limits on service providers. Such policies may be unconstitutional. In addition, actions by cities which discriminate against homeless people because of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and/or disability may violate federal law.

Local city governments may violate the Constitution if they single out homeless people for punishment, limit free speech, punish involuntary behavior or unreasonably seize or destroy homeless person's property. Policies and ordinances that drive homeless people from an area, make it illegal to perform harmless, life-sustaining activities in public when there is nowhere else to perform them, allow for arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement against homeless people, are rarely enforced except against homeless persons or service providers, or that forbid panhandling, are violations of civil rights and may be addressed through recourse to protections such as the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination against a person based on their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and/or disability, in a multitude of activities involving housing. (Source: Pallavi Rai, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, www.nlchp.org.).

The Living Wage standards presented here come from three different groups, among many, attempting to arrive at a better method of measuring the basic needs of families and individuals.

Standard 1: National Priorities Project
The National Priorities Project (NPP) developed a conservative family budget from a detailed methodology that can be obtained from NPP. The NPP Living Wage for a family of three in Delaware is $14.38 and $15.88 for a family of four.

Standard 2: Economic Policy Institute
The EPI Living Wage for Delaware is even more detailed and painstaking, with account made for variations in cost by county, as well as the age and sex of family members. The methodology was developed and applied in two publications referenced below. The EPI Living Wage standard for Delaware is the highest of the three, with a Living Wage for a family of three ranging from $15.23 to $15.92. The range for a family of four goes from $17.56 to $$20.74.

Standard 3: House the Homeless
The final Living Wage standard is based on the fair market rent (FMR). It comes up with a range from $11.71 to $13.98, assuming the family of four would be able to live in a two-bedroom unit. (Including the very real possibility of needing a three-bedroom unit for the family of four increases the upper range of the Living Wage to $18.96).

House The Homeless, Inc. (HtH) is a nonprofit organization based in Austin, Texas and formed in 1989. Its stated mission is education and advocacy around issues that cause and prevent homelessness. HTH, whose Board of Directors is comprised of no less than 60% homeless and formerly homeless citizens, has the goal of ending "homelessness" in our lifetime.

In April 2001, HtH launched its Universal Living Wage Campaign with these words:

"We believe that except for the disabled and those in emergency situations, that food stamps and general public assistance can be abolished. This can be done if all minimum wage employers would stop hiding behind the Federal Minimum Wage of $5.15 per hour and simply pay a Fair Living Wage which is Indexed to the cost of Housing. The concept is simple. It is based on the premise that if a person works 40 hours a week, then he/she should be able to access basic housing. We use two existing Federal guidelines to determine what the Universal Living Wage should be. The first guideline (a HUD standard also used by banking institutions across America) dictates that no more than 30% of a person's gross monthly income should be spent on housing. The second guideline, the Fair Market Rents (FMRs) are established by HUD throughout the country for each municipality and all other areas. Therefore, the Universal Living Wage will vary per area in accordance with the FMR. FMRs are based on gross rent estimates which include shelter, rent and the cost of utilities except telephone service. We believe that this format, using already established government guidelines, enables us to utilize existing government formulas to easily justify specific Universal Living Wage figures that are based on the need for housing and are appropriate to each municipality and outlying areas."

The Universal Living Wage Formula as a ($9.14) Minimum Wage Standard for Delaware

The Universal Living Wage makes a simple and powerful argument. Housing is the heaviest household burden, and the poorest people in a community should be able to make enough working full-time to afford the very cheapest housing. The fair market rent for an efficiency in Delaware (statewide) is $475. The table below elaborates the Universal Living Wage methodology. The advocates of a Universal Living Wage promote the passage of new state minimum wages based on, at the very least, the efficiency apartment FMR. This argument has the appeal of being a wage that is not tied to any particular sector of the labor force (e.g., public employees) and it takes as its primary consideration: the homeless of our community.

"Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle." - Shelley

The issue of poverty in a small state in the United States at the beginning of the Twenty-First Century might seem inconsequential, especially in the midst of great world concerns and sudden tragedies. Poverty in Delaware might very well be considered an issue of "market failure," which can be remedied with some relatively minor "adjustments" to the mechanisms of that market.

But this is almost surely not a completely accurate view for at least two reasons. The first of these is a "macro" issue and the second a "micro" one, but both of them relating to our ultimate interdependence, as Winnie Cooper, a tenant leader in Delaware, reminds us often.

First, markets act increasingly in a way that reminds us of a "command economy," with goals being set and objectives achieved. The huge economic actors who are the de facto global citizens of this new economy work with a relative degree of certainty as to the conditions of these markets. And our fate in Delaware - and the fate of the most disadvantaged among us - co-exists and depends upon the decisions being made at the command level, the policy level. If these big fellows sneeze, we in Delaware catch a cold. So, poverty is very much a matter of command or policy, and of will.

Secondly, inequality has consequences for all. It creates housing problems, tax burdens, and crime. But it is also linked to mental illness, public health problems, and mortality in the general populace. Those of us fortunate to live somewhere above the poverty level for our household or family size do not escape from the consequences of our collective action or inaction toward the poor in our communities. Compassion and solidarity are not luxuries but the necessary ingredients of a better life.