Editorial: The many sides of poverty

Monday, July 31, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

For many people, $16,000 pays for a used car or the down payment on a house. But would it cover food, shelter and clothing for a family of five - for a year?

Las Vegas Sun reporter Marshall Allen profiled such a family last week in a story that told of one couple's efforts to provide food and shelter for themselves and their three children, ages 7, 4 and 3. The mother works as a maid in one of Las Vegas' hotels - one of those thousands of service jobs to which economic growth cheerleaders are always referring.

She earns just less than $16,000 a year, before taxes. For a family of five, the federal poverty threshold - the maximum annual salary a family can earn and still qualify for social services - is $23,400.

The father, a 29-year-old recovering drug addict, has had trouble keeping a job. But he is busy all day, looking after the three youngsters and walking the streets in search of a permanent home for his family and applying for social services. Many of us likely assume those services are readily available. But such assumptions are typically those of people who don't need such services.

The Sun's story provided a clear but joyless snapshot of how many of the state's 111,000 impoverished children are living every day. They share beds with siblings in weekly motels or sleep in friends' living rooms. They have few clothes and no toys or books. Many are hungry. It is sometimes hard to fathom that a nation obsessed with obesity also has some 13 million children who don't get enough to eat.

The father of this struggling Las Vegas family told the Sun of the frustrations he experiences navigating the complex social service system that involves applications, reapplications and up-front fees. He often has to pay a $20 apartment complex application fee before the manager can say whether the family's rental assistance voucher can be accepted. State emergency assistance is available, but it takes 30 days to process. What kind of emergency waits a month?

This is the life of Nevada's working poor. Parents don't want to raise their children in poverty, one social services director told the Sun, but "their lives become so unraveled, they're just hanging on by a thread themselves." As political candidates make the rounds from now until November, voters should be asking them how much they know about such families and what, if anything, they intend to do to help.