Census numbers show Inland poverty, food-stamp use on the rise

10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, September 29, 2009

By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise

New Census figures on poverty are another grim reminder of the toll the severe recession is taking on Inland lives.

Nearly 21 percent of San Bernardino County's children lived in poverty in 2008, up from just over 16 percent in 2007, according to the Census estimates released Tuesday. The child-poverty rate in Riverside County was 17 percent. Food-stamp enrollment was up 48 percent in Riverside County and 30 percent in San Bernardino County.

Rick Wells is not reflected in those 2008 statistics, which were computed when the Inland area's unemployment rate was still rising. Wells, 20, lost his $15-an-hour construction job in March 2008 but was able to piece together enough work to avoid government assistance -- until Tuesday, when he sat in a crammed state Department of Public Social Services office in Moreno Valley clutching his food-stamp application. It's kind of embarrassing to ask the government for help when I know I'm very capable of working," Wells said. Like countless other Inland residents, Wells has applied for job after job but he says there's nothing. Wells has been homeless for two weeks, after he lost a live-in job helping a woman with household tasks. Her husband returned home from the hospital to assist her. Sometimes Wells sleeps behind a Moreno Valley liquor store. Other times he sleeps on a park bench. He wants to join the Marines.

"It's a place to sleep and get money and food," Wells said.

He knows he might get sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. But it's better than being homeless and jobless. "You can die on the street," Wells said. Wells was waiting with dozens of others. They filled the room's blue plastic chairs and lined much of the wall space.

Javier Gutiérrez, 66, lost his $8.50-an-hour security-guard job in February 2008. The Moreno Valley man was applying Tuesday to renew his food-stamp benefits. Olivia Muñoz makes $8.50 an hour at a bowling-alley snack bar, but she can't get more than 20 hours a week of work. With her $500-a-month rent for a room in a Moreno Valley apartment, it's not enough to buy food. She was in line in front of Gutiérrez, waiting to pick up a food-stamp card she had been approved for.
Muñoz, 24, studied for three years at a Los Angeles vocational school to become a dental-laboratory technician. But she can't find a lab job. She is still paying off $6,000 in school loans.

Last year, 4.3 percent of Riverside County residents and 7 percent of San Bernardino County residents relied on food stamps, according to the estimates from the Census' American Community Survey, which queries 3million people each year. More recent county figures are unavailable (But likely to be much higher).

Statewide, 23 percent more people received food stamps in June 2009 than in June 2008, according to preliminary data from the federal Department of Agriculture, which administers the food-stamp program. The average recipient nationwide gets $133 in monthly food assistance.

That money sometimes runs out before the end of the month, said Beverly Earl, San Bernardino County director for family and community services for Catholic Charities San Bernardino/Riverside. So they come to the organization's food pantries. They ask for toilet paper, deodorant, soap and other nonfood items not covered by food stamps, Earl said.