Child Poverty Report Prompts Supervisors to Seek Reforms

Prompted by dire warnings that children in Los Angeles County are faring worse than their counterparts nationwide, the Board of Supervisors moved Tuesday to begin requiring better coordination among the many county agencies that serve youths.

One in three children under the age of 18 in Los Angeles County lives below the poverty line, compared with one in five nationwide and one in four in the county just a few years ago, according to the county’s Children’s Planning Council.

The county findings on child poverty are similar to another report released Tuesday in Washington showing that young children in the city of Los Angeles also carry a greater-than-average risk of being poor.

Among children under age 6 who live within the city limits, nearly two-fifths--or 180,000--were in families with annual incomes below the 1994 poverty line of $15,141 for a family of four, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty.

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Add to that the number of children deemed by researchers to be living in “near poverty,” and nearly two-thirds of all young children in Los Angeles--64%--are considered at risk for the ills associated with poverty, including exposure to violence and environmental toxins and delays in physical, emotional and cognitive development.

Although recent economic problems in the region play a large role in the escalating poverty level, representatives on the county’s Children’s Planning Council said they believe that confusion and lack of coordination among the myriad programs that deliver billions of dollars in children’s aid are also to blame.

“We’re spending $12 billion a year on services for children, across 88 cities, 81 school districts, 20 county departments and 1,000 nonprofit agencies--and there is no strategic plan or a set of broad, shared goals,” council director Sharon Watson said in an interview. “We don’t have a plan or a blueprint to pull ourselves together to figure out how to use that money wisely. We need more accountability.”

Citing years of study and brainstorming on the issue, council representatives told the supervisors that children’s services should be provided on a geographic basis instead of being fragmented among county, city, school district and private sector groups.

They recommended organizing eight interagency councils to address the various needs of the county’s urban, suburban and rural areas. Also, they said services should be decentralized and emphasize prevention rather than cures.

The supervisors unanimously approved the general recommendations and directed the five major county departments serving children to report back in 60 days.

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Supervisor Gloria Molina praised council members for their efforts, but said their proposals were too vague. “These are good generic goals,” she said. “But we need some tangibles. . . . Children are in such tremendous crisis.”

The report from the National Center for Children in Poverty found that 16% of children under six in Los Angeles lived in extreme poverty in 1994--meaning that their family income was less than half the poverty level.

Julian Palmer, editor of the study, said Tuesday that the significant growth in child poverty has taken place during a period when the financial condition of older Americans has been turned around.

Since 1959, poverty among elderly Americans has been reduced from 35% to 10.5%. Meanwhile, the youngest Americans are falling more deeply into need.

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“We as a society made a decision that our values are to protect a decent standard of life for our eldest citizens,” Palmer said. “Yet at the same time we’ve allowed poverty among children to go through the roof.

“Some say that’s because kids don’t vote, they don’t hire lobbyists, they don’t form political action groups,” he said. “When it comes to kids, they have the least political power, so it’s up to the rest of us to make sure their interests are protected so they can become healthy productive citizens. It’s both the compassionate thing to do and very practical.”

Some of the most significant national trends cited by researchers appear to have disproportionate impact on the Los Angeles area. Among ethnic groups, poverty is rising most quickly among Latino children, a group that represents almost half of the city’s population.

“The increases in poverty have not recognized any kind of racial or ethnic limits--the problem has been worsening across the board,” Palmer said. “And the fact that it’s growing faster in the suburbs shows that child poverty is not being contained in the inner cities. This is everybody’s problem.”

Statewide, the center reported that California is home to 867,000 poor children, placing it just above the national rate.

Meyer reported from Los Angeles, Healy from Washington.