Poverty and Services in Rural Areas – Colorado

Mobile services making rural poverty a little more bearable, By Barbara Cotter, March 26, 2011, Colorado Springs Gazette: “The elderly man shooting the breeze with folks at an Ellicott food and clothing pantry is reluctant to share his full name, but when it comes to discussing his financial situation, he’s an open book. ‘I’m poor, lady. I’m very poor,’ says the man, who will identify himself only as ‘Mr. Hughes.’ The 71-year-old former electrician lives with his wife and a caretaker and survives on about $910 a month in Social Security. He talks about having to choose between heat and food, how he sometimes has to go without gas in his car. Even paying for his oxygen can be a struggle. ‘And yeah, there’s times I don’t eat,’ he says in a gruff voice interrupted by rhythmic puffs from his oxygen tank. Poverty challenges people no matter where they live. But a hard life is made harder for Hughes and hundreds of other financially strapped people who live on the eastern plains of El Paso County, where unending stretches of two-lane and dirt roads connect one small town with few social services to other small towns with few social services…”