Poverty Simulation – November 16, 2007

Can't pay the bills? Falling further and further behind?
Getting help means waiting in lines, filling out forms,
telling strangers things you thought were nobody else's business.

Are you aware that in 2005 17.5% of Pittsburgh families were living below the poverty level, up from 15% in 2000? That in the same year 8.8% of Allegheny County families were living below the poverty level compared with 7.9% in 2000? These numbers do not include those living "just above" the poverty level, a standard developed over 40 years ago and not adjusted for the rising costs.

The 2007 Federal Poverty Guidelines set $13,690 as the standard yearly income a two-person family requires to be above the poverty level. A family of four requires $20,650. The federal minimum wage is now $5.85 an hour, amounting to $12,168 a year were one fortunate enough to have a 40-hour work week.

Can you even begin to imagine and understand the fears, the anguish, the multiplying frustrations that adults and children in low-income families experience as they cope with the day-to-day, month-by-month struggle to meet the most basic costs of housing, food, child care, health care, utilities, and transportation. Are you willing to try?

HCEF and its partner organizations – Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Allegheny County Library Association, the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Public Schools – joined with Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners (PSVP) to present a Poverty Simulation Experience during National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week in mid-November.

The photographs on the page that follows tell the story as participants seek help from community and governmental resources, negotiate with neighborhood businesses, and face the unexpected crises that complicate an already difficult situation.

12/1/07