More kids are raised by grandma

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, Oct. 16, 2003 | 11:04 a.m.

More grandparents than ever are raising their grandchildren, and a significant portion of them are living in poverty, the Census Bureau said in a report released today.

About 19 percent of grandparent caregivers lived below the poverty line in 1999, compared with 14 percent of all families living with children.

The report, culled from 2000 census data, found that about a third of the 2.4 million grandparents who are primary caregivers to their grandchildren lived in a home without the child's parents. In many cases it's because one or both parents were in jail or on drugs.

Nevada's overall figures were comparable to the rest of the nation's -- 33 percent of the state's grandparents who cared for their grandchildren lived without the child's parents. Economically, the state's grandparents were better off than many other states in 1999, however -- only 11.1 percent were below the poverty line, giving Nevada the sixth lowest percentage nationwide in that category.

At the same time, 4.3 percent of all households in Nevada had grandparents living with their grandchildren, either with or without the parents, ranking the state 14th nationwide in that category.

Barbara Bell, 56, is one of Nevada's 45,000 grandparents who live with their grandchildren. She, her son and her two teenage grandchildren have lived in an apartment near Jones Boulevard and U.S. 95 for five years, since her son got divorced.

"When you have one parent and he's not home because he's working, somebody has to be here to find out where (the children) are going and what they're doing," Bell said.

"You don't let two teenagers run in the streets by themselves," she said.

Advocacy groups seized on the report's numbers to urge Congress to do more to help grandparents who care for their grandchildren. They noted several bills are aimed at helping caregiving grandparents with basic costs and housing, though the full House and Senate have yet to vote on the measures.

Bell, who receives Social Security disability benefits, said she helps out with her household's expenses.

"It takes a lot to raise kids and I don't care what anybody says -- their clothes cost just as much as adults'," she said.

The report found that grandparents acted as primary caregivers most often in American Indian and black families. About 56 percent of Indian grandparents and 52 percent of black grandparents living with grandchildren identified themselves as the main caregivers.

The numbers for Indians and blacks were due in part to stronger cultural ties to grandparenting roles in those populations and because those groups tend to make less money and are more apt to have several generations living in the same home, said Roderick Harrison, a demographer with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which looks at issues concerning minorities.

The rates were 43 percent among non-Hispanic whites, 35 percent for Hispanics, and 20 percent for Asians.

The Associated Press

contributed to this story.