denver and the west
Income gains elude poor Coloradans
Policy experts and charities say data show the state trends it can't afford.
By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 08/27/2008 12:14:40 AM MDT
Don't let the flat numbers and meager gains included in Tuesday's census report fool you, say community activists and watchdog groups.
There are plenty of people in Colorado who are hungry, barely getting by and hoping they won't get sick because they don't have health insurance.
U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday said that nearly 570,000 Coloradans, or 12 percent, were living in poverty last year. That's basically the same rate as in 2006.
"We are certainly servicing a lot more people than we have in the past while bringing in the same amount of donations or less than in the past," said Randy Weinert, spokesman for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Denver.
Others who track and care for the working poor and their children say the same thing — the fight against poverty in 2007 in Colorado ended, at best, in a draw.
"We continue to see too little action and too little progress in the fight against poverty," said Kathy White, project director of the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute.
Colorado's child poverty rate rose slightly in 2007 to 15.9 percent. This comes on the heels of a June report from the Colorado Children's Campaign that said the state has the fastest-growing rate of child poverty in the nation, said Scott Downes, spokesman for the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute.
There are 185,240 children living in poverty in Colorado, according to the census.
"Poverty is the largest obstacle to opportunity for Colorado's kids, and its impact can last a lifetime," said Megan Ferland, president of the Colorado Children's Campaign. ". . . These are trends that our children, and our state, cannot afford."
One bright spot in the census data is that Colorado's median income increased to $55,212, a $396 increase over the year before.
This nearly matches the income levels before the 2001 recession, Downes said.
Still, the lowest earners in the country have not seen their incomes recover to pre-2001 recession levels, while top earners have exceeded pre-recession levels, he said.
Also, there was a rise in the number of people without health insurance in Colorado to 16.8 percent, or 813,000 people, according to the Census Bureau. Colorado's rate of uninsured exceeds the national rate of 15.5 percent.
Colorado bucks a national trend in which both the percentage and number of people without health insurance decreased slightly from 2006 to 2007, the census reported.
As the nation's Democrats map out strategies in this fall's election, the new census numbers indicate the real impact policy decisions made in Denver and Washington can have on average people, Downes said.
"State and federal leaders have the unique opportunity to confront these challenges head-on," said Downes, "with smart, sound policy making." |
