- In Ohio’s poorest county, people do what it takes, By Jessica Alaimo, December 4, 2011, Coshocton Tribune: “Brock Brewster’s truck dominated the single-lane road in western Pike County and rumbled over an extension cord. This extension cord has been strung across this Latham road for two years. It powers the lights of a white-and-brown trailer, using the electricity from a home across the road. It’s the only source of electricity for the trailer’s owner, who said she uses it to power her lights. She uses a wood stove to stay warm…”
- The new poor: Situational poverty on the rise locally, By Kristina Smith Horn, December 3, 2011, Port Clinton News Herald: “For most of his life, Gilbert Turner was a successful businessman. At 16, his family moved from Mississippi to Danbury Township, where he worked two jobs — one at U.S. Gypsum and one at the now-closed Standard Products. Turner worked hard, saved his money and built a prosperous hotel and restaurant business in Port Clinton and Toledo that he ran with his wife. Turner, who still retains a bit of the Southern drawl of his youth, reminisces about buying a new car in the 1940s and parking it in downtown Port Clinton…”
- Education a fresh start for those in poverty, By Kurt Moore, December 6, 2011, Marion Star: “When Kalya Wiseman got pregnant as a teen, her first plan was to be a young housewife. ‘It totally didn’t work out,’ she said. The search was on for a new plan. ‘I realized I needed to get an education so I could go to college and have a better life for me and my son.’ Wiseman, 20, is among students enrolled at Marion County Jobs for Ohio’s Graduates. Its students refer to it as their second chance, and sometimes as their only hope as many struggle to not fall into a cycle of poverty…”
- Poverty: Charity care on rise in county, By Leonard Hayhurst, December 6, 2011, Coshocton Tribune: “Coshocton Hospital won’t turn a patient away. But with the economy still struggling, fewer come in with adequate medical insurance or the money to pay. Uncompensated care at the hospital has risen more than $3 million since 2008, hospital spokeswoman Mary Ellen Given said. Factoring inpatient and outpatient charity care and cases where the hospital absorbed the leftover cost from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, the hospital spent $8.8 million in 2010 for uncompensated care compared with $7.1 million in 2009 and $5.1 million in 2008…”
- Poverty: Mental illnesses compound issue, By Russ Zimmer, December 5, 2011, Lancaster Eagle Gazette: “Tim Schrack walks 20 minutes, rain or shine, to his second-shift job coating and shipping seat-belt brackets. He’s estranged from almost his entire family and on his own for the first time in his 56 years of life. Schrack is bipolar, a condition he’s ignored — to his detriment — for decades. Schrack, by his own account, is the happiest he’s ever been. ‘I just never thought I could make it on my own,’ a grinning Schrack said inside his new apartment…”
- More Licking County kids getting lunch aid, By Seth Roy, December 4, 2011, Newark Advocate: “The soles of a student’s shoes were coming apart one day at school, and a teacher asked when he might get a new pair. ‘He said, ‘We’re poor; we can’t get new shoes,” Stevenson Elementary art teacher Shannon Montgomery said. ‘At this age, the kids are much more open about it.’ Schools across the country have seen their population of students in poverty rise in recent years. Heath’s population of students receiving free or reduced price lunches rose from 26 percent to 37 percent from 2006 to 2010; 42 percent of Stevenson’s population receives some lunch assistance…”
- Seasonal employment makes winter difficult, By Kristina Smith Horn, December 5, 2011, News-Messenger: “Each year, Val Kochensparger is laid off from her job just before Christmas. She collects unemployment for 8 to 10 weeks, and she and her husband rely on his income to help get them through the winter. When the ice clears off Lake Erie, usually in March, Kochensparger goes back to her job managing the ticket booth at the Miller Boat Line on Catawba Island…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty