The Nightmare of Children in Poverty : Informed Opinions on Today’s Topics

The kids are not all right in California. Almost one-third of them, in fact, are living in poverty.

That’s according to a new study by the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the UC San Diego School of Law, which indicates that the number of children living in poverty in the state jumped from 21.7% in 1989--1.66 million--to 28.6%--2.36 million--in 1994. In the last five years, according to the institute, more children have entered poverty than in the previous two decades.

The study, which used data from the state Department of Finance, attributes the increase to a low minimum wage, high unemployment and fathers’ failure to pay child support.

The federal poverty line now stands at $1,016 per month for basic shelter and nutrition for a mother and two children.

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What can society do about child poverty?

Dr. Tomas E. Martinez, executive director, El Centro de Amistad, Canoga Park

“We have to value children more as the resource they can be rather than seeing them as a burden. We have to look at the long-range costs and benefits to our society for children to be cared for. They need to be given more attention in terms of resources, support and services. The services children need must be looked at as being critical to our nation’s survival.

“We have to pay more attention to children that do need the help rather than asking them to leave the country, as Proposition 187 proposed, or rather than penalizing the children because they don’t have a voice to speak up for themselves.”

Sandy Bihlmeyer, program director, Meet Each Need with Dignity (MEND), Pacoima

“My opinion is that prevention is the name of the game. You have to start with those kids in poverty to prevent their kids from being in poverty. You do it through education, through the early-intervention programs, showing them that there is more than just having a baby when you are 14, and that’s the end of your life.

“There isn’t enough of prevention. You’ve got kids in poverty because you have parents in poverty, and so you have to not only look at the kids, you have to look at the whole family and the reasons for that. If a lot of those kids are in single-parent homes, then you have another problem with unemployment. It’s real difficult for a single mom to go to work. Usually, they are unskilled. They get low wages, so it doesn’t pay to go to work.”

Jeff Farber, director of social services, Los Angeles Family Housing

“One thing we can do is look at the current attitudes and potential actions taken by Congress and try to get them to become aware if they cut funding by instituting block-grant programs, you will have an increased number of children living in poverty and potentially going hungry.

We can make it a higher priority by developing more awareness to the fact that the majority of the people on welfare and the majority of people who need assistance are children, and encourage governmental officials and local agencies to remember that the No. 1 need is to make sure children are not hungry and that they have adequate housing. We need to have families earn a wage that allows them to adequately feed, house and clothe their children. In an area like ours, minimum wage does not supply you with enough income to survive.”

Carolyn Olney, associate director, Southern California Interfaith Hunger Coalition.

“While we know poverty is very difficult to root out, there are existing programs that if, adequately funded and fully supported, would prevent one of the most harmful consequences of child poverty, and that’s hunger. Our focus is to target that very harmful effect. We also need to look at many global factors that I think we don’t spend enough time looking at, such as the wages that people make and the support for job creation in this country.”