Newly poor swell lines at U.S. food banks

[hilly7]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/19/a...20food.php

Newly poor swell lines at U.S. food banks
By Julie Bosman Published: February 19, 2009

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MORRISTOWN, New Jersey: Cindy Dreeszen and her husband live in one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. They have steady jobs, his at a movie theater and hers at a government office. Together, they earn about $55,000 a year.

But with a 17-month-old son, another baby on the way, and, as Dreeszen put it, "the cost of everything going up and up," the couple went to a food pantry this month to ask for some free groceries.

"I didn't think we'd even be allowed to come here," said Dreeszen, 41, glancing around at the shelves of fruit, whole-wheat pasta and baby food. "This is totally something that I never expected to happen, to have to resort to this."

Once a crutch for the most needy, food pantries have responded to the deepening recession by opening their doors to what one pantry organizer described as "the next layer of people," a rapidly expanding group of child-care workers, nurse's aides, real estate agents and secretaries who are facing a financial crisis for the first time. Over all, demand at food banks across the country increased by 30 percent in 2008 from the previous year, according to a survey by Feeding America, which distributes more than two billion pounds of food every year. And while pantries usually see a drop in demand after the holiday season, many in upscale suburbs this year are experiencing the opposite.

Here in Morris County (median household income, $82,173), the Interfaith Food Pantry added extra hours this month after seeing a 24 percent increase in customers and 45 percent increase in food distributed in November, December and January compared with the same period last year.

Today in Americas
Newly poor swell lines at U.S. food banks Obama unveils $275 billion plan to fight home foreclosuresCalifornia legislature passes budget in after scathing battleIn Lake Forest, Illinois, a wealthy Chicago suburb, a pantry in an Episcopal church that used to attract people from less affluent towns nearby has been flooded with people who have lost jobs. In Greenwich, Connecticut, one pantry organizer reported a "tremendous" increase in demand for food since December, with out-of-work landscapers and housekeepers as well as real estate professionals who have not made a sale in months filling the line.

And amid the million-dollar houses of Marin County, California, a pantry at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center last month changed its policy to allow people to stop by once a week instead of every other week, since there are so many new faces in line alongside the regulars.

"We're seeing people who work at banks, for software firms, for marketing firms, and they're all losing their jobs," said Dave Cort, the executive director. "Here we are in big, fancy Marin County, but we have people who are standing in line with their eyes wide open, thinking, 'Oh my God, I can't believe I'm here.' "

The demand is not limited to pantries, which distribute groceries from food banks, supermarket surplus and individuals who donate through church or school can drives. The number of food-stamp recipients was up by 17 percent across New York State, and 12 percent in New Jersey, in November from a year before. When a mobile unit of the Essex County welfare office, as part of a pilot program to distribute food-stamp applications in other counties, stopped in Shop-Rite parking lots recently in Morris County, it was swamped.

"If one of our richest counties has people signing up for food stamps who have never signed up before, that indicates the depth of this problem with the lack of food," said Kathleen DiChiara, executive director of Community FoodBank of New Jersey. "It's the canary in the coal mine."

Experts said that chronically poor people tend to adapt to the periods where money is scarce by asking for support from friends or tapping into social services, but that working-class people who suddenly lose jobs or homes often find themselves at sea, unsure how to navigate the system or ashamed to seek help.

It is those people who, over the last several months, have started arriving in growing numbers at food pantries, which are often the first tentative step for those whose incomes are too high to qualify for government assistance. (Many pantries have a no-questions policy, though they might determine how many bags of groceries a customer can receive by the number of people in their household.)

"These are people who never really had to ask for help before," said Brenda Beavers, human services director for the Salvation Army in New Jersey, which dispenses emergency food supplies at 30 pantries throughout the state. "They were once givers and now they're having to ask for assistance."

In Morristown, Rosemary Gilmartin, executive director of the Interfaith Food Pantry, has over the last several months watched a steady stream of new faces pushing shopping carts among the cardboard boxes on metal shelves in a former nursing home. In 2008, the pantry gave away 620,000 pounds of food, a 24 percent increase from 2007.

Along with fresh apples and Nature's Path Organic Soy Plus cereal, Gilmartin, who began volunteering at the pantry 13 years ago, gives children "Dora the Explorer" books. In the past few months, she has found herself fielding more inquiries about social service programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit from people who clearly had never before hovered this close to the poverty line.

"They look shellshocked," she said. "I've had people walk back out and say, 'I can't do this.' "

She recalled one recent walk-in, a television sound engineer who lost his house to foreclosure. "His life just went reee-eeer," Gilmartin said, twirling her finger in a downward circle.

Usually, the pantry distributes food at two locations several mornings a week, including most Saturdays, and on the first and third Wednesday evenings of the month. But this month, Gilmartin decided to also open on the second Wednesday because she has been having trouble accommodating everyone.

By 5:30 p.m. on that Wednesday, a half-hour before the pantry was to open, a line of nearly two dozen had formed. Once inside, people were escorted individually through the shelves of low-fat mozzarella cheese, dried beans and Pepperidge Farm chocolate chunk cookies, where a few paused — often reluctantly — to explain what had brought them.

"A deadbeat husband and a loss of a job," said one woman in her 20s, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she did not want her friends to know she had been visiting the pantry. It was her second visit. The first time, she could barely get out of her car. "Let me put it this way — it took me a long time to come here," the woman said as she added a bag of lentils to her cart. "I felt like a loser. I felt like a total lowlife."

A woman wearing gold earrings and a red Vera Bradley bag over her shoulder, who is in her 50s and gave only her first name, Louise, said she had recently lost her job and has been struggling to pay her bills.

"I can understand why people would be embarrassed to come here," she said, as she loaded her groceries into the trunk of her silver Chevy Malibu. "I guess I am a little embarrassed."

Joan Verba, 53, said she had been coming up short financially since she quit her job as an accountant after her husband became ill with cancer. When her husband died, leaving her and a 14-year-old son, she put off plans to re-enter the work force.

"The job market is so bad right now," she said. "My son eats 24-7. I just need this to supplement my food bills."

Her mother, Carol Morrison, stood nearby. "I'm just here for moral support," she said, inspecting the shelves. "And nosiness."

[plasticfan]

The Coming Crisis: White Collar Homelessness
Shannon Moriarty
February 10, 2009


Last month, unemployment rates surged to 7.6 percent. As the jobless population becomes older and more educated, many are ending up with no car, no job prospects, no health insurance, and - before long - no home. Will the dramatic increase of unemployment change the face of homelessness in America?

According to data from the Labor Department, more jobs have been lost in the past 12 months than any other period since the government began keeping records in 1939. Perhaps most disconcerting is that experts predict unemployment will get worse before it gets better. In 1991 and 2001, unemployment didn't hit its peak until two years after those recessions ended.

As unemployment becomes worse, community-based organizations are noticing a change in their clientele. Shelters are seeing clients who are more representative of the newly unemployed. Here's what one non-profit, Partnering for Change, reported on their blog just last week:

In recent months we've noticed a change in the needs of our program feeding homeless children. I've mentioned, there are over 11,000 elementary age children in Orange County, CA who are homeless. They are homeless for different reasons. But here's a scenario you wouldn't think would take place:

Two able body parents in their early 30's. He has a 4 year college degree in marketing, she went to a technical school in information technology. Both are smart with a willingness to work. They have 3 kids, ages 8, 5 and 2. But guess what, they are both unemployed....for 9 months now.

What would you do? When your unemployment runs out and no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to get a job? How would you feed your family? How would provide shelter?

Unfortunately this family is representative of the new face of homelessness in our community. The college educated family forced to leave their rental home and bounce around from motel to motel with no money for food to feed their children.

Another organization in St. Louis, the St. Patrick Center, has adjusted it's employment services to meet the needs of the newly unemployed white collar workforce. They have launched a networking and job training program to connect laid off workers with employment opportunities:

Officials at the St. Patrick Center said an obvious need in the region -- with roughly 7,800 professional people laid off in the past four months -- prompted the effort. Missouri's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit 7.3 percent in December, its highest mark in 25 years.

According to Business Week, over 200 suited professionals showed up for the first meeting.

Given that shelters and community safety nets are already grappling with shrinking budgets and increased demand, this economic outlook is downright scary.


http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/t...ar_homelessness

[plasticfan]

Rise in US homeless sparks concern
Al Jazeera English
24 Feb 2009

The growing number of new homeless people in the US falling through the cracks because of the ailing US economy is becoming so evident even long-term homeless people are taking note.

The growing population is causing problems for shelters that are often forced to close their doors ... and turn away the needy, as Al Jazeera's Mike Kirsch discovers at Skid Row in Los Angeles, California.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Zk3w3JR_w

[jack]

This is all hitting way too close to home for me.
When and if I disappear for good (not that anyone would care or even notice - just the cold hard truth) go ahead and assume that I too have lost my home and the privilege of internet access.
A lot of good an education does when there are no jobs that will the bills, low as they are.

[Easy Skanking]

It's pretty close to home for a lot of us , I suspect. If it gets to that ( and I hope it doesn't for any of us) there are always computers in libraries for public use. Believe it or not, but we do notice when regulars are absent for a while. It would be nice to know if those members are okay at the least. Depending on the situation, there may be others here that can help in dire times. I may be teaching everyone how to build Bedini devices for power...who knows....Since there aren't a whole lot of us with our views, I would hope we would be able to help if we can.

Just remember 3 words if it comes to foreclosure: "Show the note."

If they can't show that they legally own the note, then you are not obligated to pay them. That seems to be one loophole to all of the credit swap swindle shell game. They have no clue as to who owns what. Use it to your advantage.

[hilly7]

We notice jack, and we care. As ES says, no more of us than there are, I hope that we will stick together. Push comes to shove, you all are always welcome here.

On foreclusures, they must have the original paperwork, hand signed originals, not copies.

If the dollar goes belly up, a lawyer (not sure about this) says that loans had on a currency that doesn't exist can not be enforced.

[---]

As I already stated to you before - it's good to see you around, Jack. Now you stay around, you hear?:)

[jack]

Thanks guys, I guess I was just busy feeling sorry for myself, 2009 has been a bad year so far. I'll try and quit now, after all self pity is very unbecoming.


Thanks for the advice ES & Hilly, I didn't know of that (not sure it applies towards me - standard fixed loan, that was well within the budget btw) hopefully it won't come to such, this house has a lower mortgage than the rent around here for a good apartment with the proper room for a couple of children. OMG a breeder, fingers point - earth killer;)but hey they make straight A's, the youngest does division while his peers are still on addition/subtraction and the oldest won at the primary school level competition of the science fair. Energy related as well but mos def no Bendini device.
I hadn't thought of the library either, been so long since I was there last - last time I was there, it was had many homeless people in it.
Apparently it's one of the best place for them to spend the day - until they lock the doors that is.

I always thought that if I became destitute it would be due to my own lack of ambition, motivation or some type of addiction, but not due lack of employment. I wouldn't mind so much were it not for the children, To be honest it makes me very nervous.

OK now that it is all off of chest and unfortunately out in public - opps/emotional outburst not intentional - I'll stop now and get back to business.

[hilly7]

jack, nothing wrong with knowing your situtuation, and sharing it. For that matter, feeling and expressing it.

Even with a fixed mortgage they have tossed these things around like a hot potato, so any could be like that, no real paperwork. But lets hope it doesn't come to that. If it does, the invitation still stands.

[plasticfan]

California’s Newly Poor Push Social Services to Brink
Feb. 26 (Bloomberg)


In California’s Contra Costa County, 40,000 families are applying for just 350 affordable-housing vouchers. Church-operated pantries are running out of food. Crisis calls have more than doubled in the city of Antioch, where the Family Stress Center occupies the site of a former bank.

The worst financial crisis in seven decades is forcing thousands of previously middle-income workers to seek social services, overwhelming local agencies, clinics and nonprofits. Each month 16,000 people, including many who were making $60,000 to $100,000 annually just a few years ago, fill four county offices requesting financial, medical or food assistance.

“Unless we do things differently, not only will we continue to be on life support, but the power to the machine is going to die,” said county Supervisor Federal Glover, who represents Antioch and the cities of Pittsburg and Oakley about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of San Francisco.

Contra Costa, an East Bay suburban region of more than 1 million, turned thousands of farmland acres into housing in the past two decades, becoming an affordable alternative to San Francisco. Now, the area is being hit by a double whammy, as rising unemployment increases demand for social services, while plunging home values shrink tax revenue and squeeze agency budgets.

County officials made $90 million in cuts during the current fiscal year, and plan to reduce another $56 million, out of a $1.2 billion general-fund budget, in the coming year. County administrator David Twa said he doesn’t expect to see a “gradual recovery” in property taxes until 2012 or 2013.

Safety Net

The social safety net is being stretched “all over the country,” said Jacqueline Byers, research director for the National Association of Counties in Washington. “The formerly middle class who lost jobs, homes, or both suddenly are requesting assistance for the first time.”

Nationwide, demand for food stamps, one of the first benefits that new applicants for services qualify for, has mushroomed since the recession began in December 2007. About 31.1 million people received food stamps in November, an increase of 13 percent from the end of 2007, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department, which administers the program.

A record 5.11 million Americans were collecting unemployment benefits in the week ended Feb. 14. The jobless rate in Contra Costa, currently at 9.3 percent compared with a U.S. rate of 7.6 percent, is likely to reach as high as 12 percent, Twa said. Among local employers that have cut jobs or forced workers to take unpaid leave are USS-Posco Industries, a joint venture of U.S. Steel Corp. and Posco of South Korea, and newspaper publisher MediaNews Group Inc.

“We are in a critical situation and it’s not likely to get better over the next several years,” Twa said.

Therapy for Staff

Lines snake out the door of Contra Costa County’s employment and human services office in Antioch. At the Richmond office, the applicants’ stories of foreclosures and repossessed cars are “weighing” on staffers, who are offered therapy, said division manager Renee Giometti.

“People are physically going through a slow death,” said Karen Stewart, an area real-estate agent who earned about $80,000 a year just three years ago and is now down to her last $700. “You don’t have any support and the support systems that were in place before aren’t in place anymore.”

Recently separated, Stewart, 45, said she has been without a steady income since 2006 and is living on a county-issued food- debit card. The five-bedroom house in Brentwood she and her husband had purchased for $500,000 went into foreclosure in January. She said she hasn’t ruled out moving into her Lexus sedan and sending her 12-year-old son to live with a relative on the East Coast.

‘On the Edge’

Shelley Bowen, a 35-year-old stay-at-home mom from Antioch, said she and her husband Jason are “teetering on the edge,” as they face slowing sales of his art work and a $2,500 monthly mortgage that will go up by $1,000 in April.

Even though Jason makes $90,000 to $95,000 a year as an oil painter and instructor, “we’re kind of holding our breath, hoping nothing else happens,” Bowen said. If necessary, the couple would turn to family and friends, then church-welfare services and government assistance, she said.

“It’s a combination of a housing crisis and unemployment crisis like we’ve never seen before,” said Antioch realtor Kay Trail, a former city-planning commissioner. “Instead of being a bedroom community where people could live a certain lifestyle for an affordable price, now there’s quiet dread.”

Homeowners Default

The county’s median house price has plummeted 53 percent to $220,000 from $463,000 in a year, according to MDA Dataquick in San Diego. In the fourth quarter, 3,135 notices of default representing the first stage of foreclosure were filed against county homeowners, the firm said. That’s more than 10 times the number in San Francisco.

In Antioch’s old-town district, the Peacock Expressions art gallery, More to Love clothing store, and Rivertown Cafe are gone, replaced by empty storefronts.

About five miles away, signs reading “bank-owned home” are scattered throughout neighborhoods. Single-family properties built by KB Home are offered for less than $300,000. At the County East Mall, TJX Cos.’ Marshalls and Gottschalks Inc. stores were almost empty.

The county’s Housing Authority has a five-year wait for affordable-housing vouchers, said executive director Joseph Villarreal. Requests for homeless assistance statewide were up 26 percent in September over a year earlier, according to the California State Association of Counties in Sacramento.

Suicide Threats

“There’s always a level of desperation” in applicants, Villarreal said. “But the degree and depth of it now I’ve never seen: I’m not used to getting calls from clients saying they’ll kill themselves if they don’t get on the wait list.”

California’s 58 counties are $1 billion short of the amount needed to administer social-service programs in the current fiscal year that ends in June, said Paul McIntosh, executive director of the statewide group of counties. The local-government crisis was aggravated by state Controller John Chiang’s move earlier this month to start delaying almost $270 million in payments to counties for social services.

Neither the California legislature’s new budget package approved on Feb. 19 nor President Barack Obama’s $787 billion federal stimulus plan signed into law two days earlier will be enough to completely or immediately help counties, said McIntosh and Glover. Counties will still fall short of what they need even if Chiang releases previously withheld funds, they said.

“Contra Costa is near the front of the pack” among counties with the deepest financial woes, McIntosh said. “But the pack is tightly bunched and all headed in the same direction: off a cliff.”


http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2060110...&refer=home

[plasticfan]

Feeding the homeless gets you jail time in Orlando.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7wV_df4bj8